INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE FIA: ISSUE #7

THE BIG PICTURE TOUR DE FORCE How the FIA is harnessing the Rally legend Sébastien Loeb’s power of supercomputers and move to the World Touring Car Europe’s biggest MRI scanner Championship is proving to be to make racing safer P24 a glorious switch P32 SAFER LOADS ELDEST STATESMAN HGVs are set to be radically Fifty years on, John Surtees transformed as part of plans to relives how he became the only improve pedestrian safety and man to take world titles on two reduce emissions P28 and four wheels P62

P43 RACING’S ELECTRIC DAWN BEHIND THE SCENES AT FORMULA E AS IT PREPARES TO LIGHT UP MOTOR SPORT DON’T SLOW

YOUR LIFE ISSUE #7 from race to race with the right aircraft

Buying and selling aircraft can be a bumpy business. But for over 50 years, we have earned a reputation for delivering the smoothest ride, INTERNATIONAL as well as the best deal. We did it by building our business entirely JOURNAL OF THE FIA around our customers’ needs. With transaction specialists who really know aircraft and markets, and an unmatched global network of part- Editorial Board: ners. The result? Faster, easier transactions and lots of repeat clients. JEAN TODT, PIERRE REGENT, GERARD SAILLANT, TIM KEOWN, So call us and relax. You have got the best navigator around. SAUL BILLINGSLEY www.jetcraft.com I [email protected] I Headquarters +1 919 941 8400 Editor-in-chief: PIERRE REGENT Executive Editor: MARC CUTLER Editor: JUSTIN HYNES Copy Editor: GILLIAN RODGERS Art Direction and Design: CARA FURMAN Photo Editor: CATHERINE SHAW Contributors: BEN BARRY, PABLO FERNANDEZ, TONY THOMAS, MATT YOUSON Logistics: MARIE DUJET Repro Manager: ADAM CARBAJAL Printing: MANOR CREATIVE We would like to thank the following for their help with this issue of AUTO: XAVIER DELOGE, DIANA FAUNER, HAYLEY GALLAGHER, EDUARDO LESSA, ADAM McDAID, TOM PHILLIPS, AUDE RAYNAUT, RICHARD RODGERS Advertising: STEPHANE FILLASTRE [email protected]

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THE FIA The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile is the governing More than ever before, motor sport is at body of world motor sport and the federation of the world’s the forefront of engineering technology. leading motoring organisations. Founded in 1904, it brings The new hybrid powertrains used in Formula One together 236 national motoring and sporting organisations from are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in over 135 countries, representing terms of engine design, energy recovery and power millions of motorists worldwide. In motor sport, it administers output. And later this year motor sport’s first all- the rules and regulations for all electric global championship is set to break more international four-wheel sport, including the FIA Formula One new ground. World Championship and FIA The FIA Formula E Championship is leading the World Rally Championship. charge when it comes to motor sport’s cutting-edge credentials and its relevance to the automotive THE FIA FOUNDATION The FIA Foundation is an industry. In this issue, AUTO talks to the teams, independent UK-registered charity technicians, drivers and power players behind the that supports an international programme of activities promoting new series and finds out what’s in store for this road safety, the environment exciting addition to the racing landscape. and sustainable mobility. It was established in 2001 with a Another series to be propelled forward in 2014 is donation of $300 million from the the FIA World Touring Car Championship, following FIA and is governed by a Board of Trustees. Among its activities, the the addition of nine-time World Rally Champion Foundation participates in various Sébastien Loeb to the Citroën team. AUTO follows UN road safety and environment related partnerships and is a his progress as he switches codes to circuit racing member of the UN Global Road with stunning results. Safety Collaboration. He will be hoping to match the success of another

THE FIA INSTITUTE world champion who switched codes – John A service driven The FIA Institute is an international Surtees. In an extensive interview he looks back not-for-profit organisation that on his career, including his regrets and triumphs. develops and improves motor insurance broker for sport safety and sustainability. Some even more significant victories have been It leads projects that encourage the rapid development of new achieved in the world of motoring, with the FIA and improved safety technologies; successfully campaigning for safer systems to be the fast moving world that facilitate higher standards added to trucks across the EU. In South America, of education and training; and that raise awareness of the FIA Foundation-supported Gonzalo Rodríguez safety and sustainability issues. The Institute was established foundation has been equally effective in bringing in in October 2004 and funds its legislation to improve school bus safety for children. activities through annual grants from the FIA Foundation. www.ellisclowes.com +44 (0)20 7220 0130 Authorised and regulated by the FCA Registered in England and Wales 07 Registered Lloyd’s of London Broker Company no. 07202991 AUTO / CUE

From protecting schoolgoers NEWS/ in Uruguay to schooling young P14-21 Nissan becomes the fourth manufacturer to sign up for the World Endurance Championship; racers in Italy, this is AUTO Mercedes turns its F1 expertise to road cars and Contents road safety tops the agenda at the United Nations ANALYSIS/ 62 P22 THE BIG QUESTION AUTO asks whether motor sport is making the most JOHN SURTEES ON THE HIGHS of the opportunities presented by social media? AND LOWS OF P24 SCANNING FOR ANSWERS HIS GRAND PRIX How supercomputers and Europe’s biggest MRI GLORY YEARS scanner are helping to improve racing safety P28 THE LONG HAUL TO SAFETY 43ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PIONEERING How the EU and the FIA are working to reduce ELECTRIC RACING accidents by reshaping the trucks of the future SERIES, FORMULA E FOCUS/ P32 SÉBASTIEN LOEB’S NEW WORLD STAGE Rallying’s most successful driver has switched codes to circuit racing – and is grabbing more glory in the World Touring Car Championship P38 AIRBAGS OF POTENTIAL In today’s hi-tech cars, airbags still play a key role in keeping passengers and even pedestrians safe P43 THE ELECTRIC RACING REVOLUTION AUTO looks at the new Formula E Championship, which boasts ground-breaking technology a 24 strong line-up of teams and some star backers HOW THIS MRI P54 A SAFE PASSAGE TO SCHOOL SCANNER IS One woman’s drive to improve school bus safety in HELPING TO Uruguay in memory of her late racing-driver brother LIMIT RACING INJURIES P58 FORMULA 4 – GENERATION NEXT How the FIA is making the step up from karting competitive and cost-effective for a new generation P62 FORMULA ONE’S ELDEST STATESMAN John Surtees – F1’s oldest surviving champion and still the only man to win world titles on two and four wheels – looks back on his path to victory P70 RICHARD MILLE The French watchmaker has mixed a lifelong 32 passion for racing with his high-end timepieces RALLY LEGEND FINISH/ SÉBASTIEN LOEB P74 FREEZE FRAME IS MAKING HIS PRESENCE FELT How the late Jack Brabham made F1 history in 1966 IN WTCC by racing a car bearing his name to the world title 70 P76 THE WORLD OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES WATCHMAKER RICHARD MILLE ON Their numbers are expanding globally – but who’s 28 ahead when it comes to pioneering green motoring? BLENDING CLASSIC IN THE QUEST FOR RACING WITH HIGH- SAFETY TRUCKS ARE P78 ACADEMY GRADUATE TECH TIMEPIECES TO BE TRANSFORMED FIA Academy driver Gabby Chaves is putting his experience to good use in the US Indy Lights series

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EYES ON THE ROAD... Bernardo Sousa and co-driver Hugo Magalhães tackle the most spectacular stage Rally Açores on Rallye Açores – Sete Cidades, which is based around a huge volcanic crater on the HOME OF island of São Miguel. THE BRAVE

Not only did Portugal’s Bernardo Sousa claim his maiden FIA European Rally Championship victory on Rallye Açores, he also won the prestigious For the Braves accolade. For the Braves was a new initiative introduced for this year’s 49th running of the spectacular gravel event, aimed at rewarding the driver who showed the greatest will to win. Driving a Ford Fiesta RRC, Sousa won the prize for overcoming significant mechanical problems during the event and also for holding his nerve in a tense closing-stage battle with second-placed Kevin Abbring. Going into the final test, Sousa held a narrow 5.1-second lead over Abbring, but he powered forward to stretch the gap by a further 1.1 seconds over the 21km stage. “We thought it would be hard but day- by-day, stage-by-stage I started to believe it would be possible,” said Sousa, who also celebrated his 27th birthday on the event. “The fans were pushing and cheering. It’s incredible, a dream come true. Last year the win was blown away by a mistake of mine. Now it’s my time and I hope this win brings me much more in the future.” Sousa’s fist ERC success vaulted him to seventh in the standings as the championship approaches its halfway mark. Finland’s Esapekka Lappi leads with 98 points, 29 clear of Ireland’s Craig Breen, with Russia Vasily Gryazin third. The Rally Açores was notable too for the drivers gathering pre-event to pledge their commitment to the FIA’s Action for Road Safety campaign (below). The campaign, in support of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety, aims to help save five million lives on the world’s roads by 2020. PHOTOGRAPHY: DPPI XXXXXXXXXX PHOTOGRAPHY:

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Island dream FESTIVAL OF SPEED

It may be a small island nation in the not disappoint as the Top Gear Festival The circuit, which has been built Caribbean but Barbados has a secure pitted Hamilton’s Mercedes AMG F1 car to FIA Grade 3 standard, has agreed future on the grand stage of world motor against Block’s rallycross racer. a three-year deal to host the Top Gear sport after the launch of the new Bushy “The fund’s Facility Improvement Festival, enabling it to showcase the Park circuit with two of racing’s biggest Programme provided an opportunity to facility as it develops a broader calendar stars – Lewis Hamilton and Ken Block. develop a professional and sustainable of events. But the ambition does not Thanks to a Motor Sport Safety case for the Bushy Park circuit,” said stop there. As Mallalieu put it: “This Development Fund grant and assistance Andrew Mallalieu, president of the facility itself is just one more step in from the FIA Institute, which helped to Barbados Motoring Federation. “The result achieving our 20-year vision of having develop a master plan for the circuit, it is a lasting legacy for the development of a Barbadian as world champion in one was ready for its first event in May. It did motor sport in this region.” or more FIA championships.”

BLOCK vs HAMILTON X

Barbadian motor sport XX X XXX X X

fans were treated to XX XXX XX X

a rare spectacle when XXXX XX X X rallycross star Ken Block XX X XXX XX X pitted his 600bhp Ford : HY H

Fiesta ST against Lewis PHY: PH P A Hamilton’s Mercedes RA R

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F1 car at the new T OT O

Bushy Park circuit. HOTHO H PHOTOGRAPHY: XXXXXXXXXX PHOTOGRAPHY: PHOT PH P

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FIA ANNOUNCES EDF AS OFFICIAL TECHNICAL SUPPLIER AUTO The Fédération Internationale de Nissan vice-president Andy Palmer l’Automobile (FIA) has revealed explained that the car manufacturer had that global electricity producer and been convinced to take on the challenge supplier EDF will become an Official by new championship regulations Technical Supplier to the federation. introduced by the FIA and WEC partner EDF will aid the FIA in audit the Automobile Club de l’Ouest ACO that and research tests of propulsion, put the focus on efficiency. charging and electrical safety NEWS “We applaud the ACO and FIA for in motor sport. The French the work they have done to get the rules multinational is an industry leader right,” he said. “LMP1 is not just an arms in the field of research surrounding In this issue, Nissan helps to swell the ranks of World Endurance race – all our rivals in the class have taken electric vehicles, batteries and Championship manufacturers, Mercedes reveals plans to use its F1 different technical approaches and we charging systems. will be doing the same.” The three-year agreement will hybrid engine knowledge in road car development, Toyota enlists the He added that Nissan wants “to win in promote the sharing of information help of pop star Taylor Swift in a new seatbelt campaign, and Zoleka a very different way to that of our rivals”. and best practice between FIA and Mandela and Michelle Yeoh lead calls for greater global road safety “We won’t be turning up in a vehicle EDF technical experts on issues that is a basically another hybrid which concerning the use and practical looks like a Porsche, Audi or Toyota,” he application of electric battery cells added. “Our intention is to do something and packs, engines, transmission NISSAN BECOMES will take on Audi, Toyota and Porsche in the a little bit different.” and charging systems, as well as FOURTH MAJOR flagship sportscar series. No details of what that approach may infrastructure. MANUFACTURER The company will this year take its ZEOD be were revealed at the project’s launch FIA president Jean Todt said: TO ENTER WEC RC hybrid car to the Le Mans 24 Hours, which in London but Shoichi Miyatani, head “I am very pleased to welcome this forms round four of the WEC, and it will of Nissan’s competition and tuning arm agreement with EDF, which will race from the event’s Garage 56, reserved NISMO, said: “The design and build of the spur innovation and collaboration HOST NATIONS CHOSEN Nissan will become the fourth major for experimental machines. Next year, Nissan GT-R LM NISMO is a global project on the next generation of electric Drivers took however, it will launch a full assault on the manufacturer to compete in the FIA with its DNA firmly rooted in Japan. The vehicles. As one of the foremost part in just one FOR 2015 FIA ACADEMY World Endurance Championship after championship’s top LMP1 category with a car team comprises engineers and technical companies carrying out research selection event the Japanese company confirmed that it to be known as the GT-R LM NISMO. crew from Japan, the US and Europe.” on electro-mobility, EDF will bring Six nations have been confirmed as hosts of selection events for the next FIA in Europe last invaluable expertise and input to Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy. year for the our championships, allowing the FIA The events will be held by FIA National Sporting Authorities (ASNs) in the 2014 Academy. to further strengthen its position Netherlands, Croatia, UAE, South Africa, Mexico and China. as a leading promoter of new The global selection process has been expanded further this year to give technologies.” as many young drivers as possible the chance to apply and participate in the EDF’s input will be of particular scheme. The Europe region, which accounts for 47 eligible countries, has been relevance as the FIA launches the split across two events representing the North East and South West areas. Formula E electric racing series in The event in China will be undertaken as a collaborative project between the September, as FIA technical director Chinese (FASC) and Australian (CAMS) ASNs. Bernard Niclot explained. Last year, five events provided an opportunity for more than 70 drivers “This is a year of major – each the top pick of their country – to compete for selection in their technological revolution for the FIA’s region. These prestigious events provided significant opportunities to every championships, with powerful hybrid participant, with drivers receiving four days of world-class training and engines coming into the F1 and education while competing for a place in the main Academy. World Endurance Championships, This year’s events will run from August to late October, with each receiving and the establishment of the new global coverage on the FIA Institute website and promotion in front of the Formula E Championship,” he said. world’s motor sport media. Each ASN can nominate one driver from its “In this context of new technology jurisdiction to take part in a selection event. The Academy is open to drivers development, EDF’s high level of aged 17-23 who have demonstrated ability and competitiveness in their motor technical expertise is essential and I sport career so far. welcome this partnership.” The winner of each regional event will gain automatic selection to the 2015 Nissan has yet Bernard Salha, senior executive Academy. A further four drivers will be selected using a wildcard system to to unveil its new vice-president head of research form the final class of 10 Academy participants. hybrid challenger and development at EDF, added: The Academy offers a fully-funded training programme to help drivers – the latest car to ‘’[This agreement] will enable EDF develop their motor sport careers while increasing safety skills and promoting join its line-up of to be technically involved at the fairness and responsibility on and off the track. Graduates of the programme NISMO racers. highest level of motor sport and include Formula One reserve drivers such as Caterham F1’s Alexander Rossi thus contribute to the progress of and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, World Rally Championship driver Andreas new technologies.” Mikkelsen and European Rally Championship frontrunner Craig Breen.

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VW PRESENTS FUTURE DRIVER ASSIST TECHNOLOGY

As part of the automotive industry’s UR:BAN research programme into future driver assistance technology for road cars, Volkswagen has unveiled a range of new systems designed to improve safety. Launched in 2012, UR:BAN involves over 30 automotive manufacturers, suppliers, electronics and software companies, research institutes and cities in collaborative research into the future of mobility. VW’s latest contribution centres around cognitive assistance, driver-to-car communication and traffic management at intersections. In its cognitive assistance project, VW is developing three systems to aid drivers in urban traffic. Its ‘Lane Changing assistant’ (below) helps drivers during manoeuvres in dense traffic. The system observes surrounding vehicles with 360° monitoring. MERCEDES ROAD CARS STRONG START FOR The ‘Bottleneck assistant’ helps drivers WILL BENEFIT FROM F1 WORLD RALLYCROSS when vehicles are stationary or blocking the road. A development of the lane assist Mercedes-Benz will benefit from the The new FIA World Rallycross system already featured on production expertise gained in the development Championship produced two different cars detects obstacles in the car’s driving of Formula One’s new hybrid engines winners from its first two events in Portugal lane as well as in opposing traffic with a 3D by turning the attention of its F1 engine and the United Kingdom in May. sensor. The system checks whether a safe development facility to road car research. Former World Rally Champion Petter path exists and assists with active steering The company’s High Performance Solberg won round one in Montalegre intervention. Lastly, the ‘Emergency Braking Powertrains facility at Brixworth in the UK aboard his PS RX team’s Citroën DS3, assistant’ reduces or even avoids collisions has spent the past two years developing while Ford Olsbergs MSE driver Andreas using braking and steering interventions. a 1.6-litre, V6 turbocharged hybrid Bakkerud won round two at Lydden Hill. VW is also developing a new intelligent powerplant, the PU106A, to conform with Bakkerud, who leads the championship communications system to present new FIA regulations for the 2014 F1 season. by three points from Solberg, said: “This is information to the driver. It believes this will The company’s F1 team currently leads the a dream come true. We had a clean run and contribute towards an anticipatory style of drivers’ and constructors’ championships. it was a close fight until the end.” driving to make hazardous situations safer However, with the main development The sixth FIA championship to be and promote low emissions. phase of the power unit complete, awarded world status has attracted a strong The final system is the ‘Intersection Mercedes-Benz head of development field, with rallycross stars such as Toomas Pilot’, designed to improve traffic efficiency. Thomas Weber says the Brixworth facility will ‘Topi’ Heikkinen racing against the likes of The system informs drivers about traffic now use the expertise gained to assist with F1 star Jacques Villeneuve and Solberg. US nodes ahead, supporting them with optimal road car projects. rallycross ace Ken Block joined the grid for manoeuvres and improving traffic light “In combination with AMG there are round three in Hell, Norway, on June 14-15. switching by routing vehicle information. some new ideas about what we can do together,” Weber told UK magazine Autocar, adding that with development of F1’s powerplants falling under a proscribed life cycle new opportunities can be explored.   “Normally we would have to look at reducing the workforce in line with this cycle. It is necessary to reduce spending. “However, with this qualified team of engineers [at Brixworth], I have some ideas to do advanced engineering studies and
  development activities, and maybe also production of high-end models. The reason we can play this card is because Brixworth boss Andy Cowell reports direct to me.”  . The Brixworth centre has had some input into the company’s programmes and was  responsible for powertrain development on the Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS Electric Drive. We would like to amaze you! In fact, if you thought you knew OMP, the novelties collection just might surprise you. Along with our legendary quality, lightness and breathability that you’ve come to expect from OMP, we now offer a modern and timeless design for contemporary racers. 16 Visit our website or the Authorized Dealer near you for details about our offerings. AUTO / ROUTES AUTO / ROUTES

TOYOTA ENLISTS HELP OF SINGER SWIFT IN UN ROAD SAFETY SEATBELT CAMPAIGN DEBATE HEARS CALL FOR POST- Toyota has launched a new road safety initiative in southeast Asia to raise awareness 2015 ACTION among young people of the importance of wearing a seat belt. The United Nations General Assembly Research conducted by the automotive has passed a new resolution aimed at giant across Indonesia, the Philippines, addressing the growing epidemic of Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam revealed that deaths and injuries on the world’s roads. just 25 per cent of drivers and passengers Governments including Brazil, wear seatbelts, and that airbags work 153 Jamaica and Russia urged inclusion times better when seatbelts are worn. of road safety in the post-2015 The company believes that education is development goals due to be agreed the basis for improving road safety and as next year. such it is enlisting the help of pop star Taylor Many speakers at the debate, Swift (below), who will spread the road safety including the US Ambassador to the message to young people across the region UN Samantha Power pledged support during the course of her current tour, which for the Decade of Action for Road the Japanese car company will partner with. Safety. The singer will help educate her fans on Speaking at the assembly Global FIA AND TRANSPORT ITF SUMMIT URGES the importance of wearing a seatbelt via a Road Safety Ambassador and FORUM JOIN FORCES GLOBAL ACTION ON video message that will be screened at her member of the Global Road Safety ON ROAD SAFETY SAFE MOBILITY upcoming concerts and via online and social Commission Michelle Yeoh (right), media platforms. called for further worldwide support FUNDING PUTS F1 TECH The promotion is being run in tandem for solutions that have been proven to AUSTRALIAN FORUM The FIA will partner the International A new global campaign to replace the with Toyota’s Be Safety Leaders road safety save lives in countries around the world, IN DIGGERS AND BUSES MAKES PLEA TO UN Transport Forum (ITF) on a new research Millennium Development Goals must campaign. The campaign emphasises that irrespective of income level. project aimed at improving the collection include safe and sustainable mobility, the creating a safer road environment requires a “In my visits to many countries, The UK government has The Decade of Action Policy and Donor and analysis of road safety data in a bid to FIA Foundation has told a session at the concerted effort by all road users including alongside the sadness and loss, I have Forum held in Melbourne, Australia, joined reduced fatalities and injuries. International Transport Forum (ITF) Annual drivers, pedestrians and others in embracing seen the ways in which solutions are invested over £100 million into calls for road safety to be included in the The initiative aims to support the United Summit in Leipzig, Germany. road safety as a way of life. being implemented and lives are being new ‘post-2015’ goals for global development Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety Presenting the ‘Safe, Clean, Fair and protected,” she said. “However, if we projects that will incorporate being debated at the United Nations. in its goal of significantly reducing traffic- Green’ agenda for post-2015 sustainable are to achieve our objectives to save F1 technology into diggers and The forum was hosted by the RACV and related deaths and injuries by 2020. Around mobility, the FIA Foundation urged millions of lives globally, we must and co-organised by the Australian Automobile 1.3 million people die in road crashes every governments to address road safety, can do much more. buses to improve fuel efficiency Association, the Commission for Global year and around 50 million are seriously air quality and fuel economy in their “Safe mobility should be something Road Safety, Road Safety Fund and the FIA injured. The global death toll from traffic is negotiations over the new development we should all expect, irrespective of and cut carbon emissions. Foundation. Global Road Safety Ambassador expected to rise to two million annually with goals, which are currently taking place at whether we are rich or poor, or from A consortia led by Michelle Yeoh was a keynote speaker, as was a further 80 million serious injuries likely by the United Nations. The session featured the north or south,” she added. “Like AAA executive director Andrew McKellar 2020 unless action is taken. the Global Fuel Economy Initiative, which clean water, like education, we should automotive and construction (below). Yeoh told delegates about the road The cooperation, which is supported is coordinated by the FIA Foundation and is all have safe access to our streets. This traffic victims she’d met during a fact-finding by grant funding from the FIA Foundation, playing a key role in the post-2015 agenda. should be true for all, especially so for groups GKN, JCB, Cummins missions in Asia. “I’ve seen parents tending will focus on improving data collection, the Chilean Transport Minister Cristian our children. and Ford received the funding to their son in an intensive care unit in Delhi, analysis of which underpins road safety Bowen and the World Bank’s director of “We urgently need new sources or sleeping in the hallway of a Hanoi hospital policy decisions. transport, Jose-Luis Irigoyen, were guest of funding to support road safety from the Advanced Propulsion where their daughter lies hurt,” she said. “We After signing an agreement at the ITF’s speakers at the event. Bowen described campaigns. And we need new Centre (APC). have a chance to make their voices heard.” Annual Summit of Transport Ministers in Chile’s approach to sustainable transport momentum in support of our shared The UN’s Decade of Action aims to save Leipzig, Germany in May, FIA president Jean and outlined the new fuel economy objective for the Decade of Action, Carbon emissions from five million lives and prevent 50 million Todt said: “We will work on the development labelling system for cars that has been beginning with the inclusion of road serious injuries. But this will not be achieved of universal road traffic safety indicators, introduced with support from GFEI. safety in the post-2015 goals.” bus engines will be reduced unless funding, coordination and political which can be of great help when addressing Irigoyen spoke about the findings of the The new resolution passed by the through the development of support is increased, the forum heard. national road safety problems. The expertise World Bank’s joint study with the Institute United Nations General Assembly calls that the ITF has acquired in road safety data for Health Metrics and Evaluation on for a global ministerial conference to new stop-start diesel engine collection and analysis will allow us to better ‘Transport for Health’. be held in 2015 to assess progress of evaluate crash trends, improve the analysis The meeting was chaired by FIA the Decade of Action for Road Safety. technology. For diggers, F1 of risk exposure and design more effective Foundation director Saul Billingsley, who The Brazilian government has offered to KERS technology will help road safety policies.” said: “Road traffic injury and poor air host the meeting. ITF secretary-general José Viegas (above quality are placing intolerable burdens In tandem with the new resolution boost efficiency by modifying with President Todt) said: “Good data is on millions of lives. These issues can be on road safety, the Assembly passed critical for any road safety research, policy addressed with concerted global action to a second resolution asking the World the hydraulic power delivery and crash prevention activities. The lack of implement road safety, address fuel quality, Health Organisation to plan a Global system and using mechanical data globally creates significant difficulties encourage walkable urban spaces and Road Safety Week in 2015 on the theme in assessing specific road safety issues.” improve fuel economy.” of children and road safety. PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTOGRAPHY: energy recovery technology.

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FIA AND IFRC TO ZOLEKA MANDELA LEADS CO-OPERATE ON SAFE SCHOOL PROJECT POST-CRASH CARE The granddaughter of Nelson Mandela The FIA and the International Federation and global road safety campaigner Zoleka of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Mandela has led the launch of the first Safe (IFRC) will co-operate on the promotion of Schools project in South Africa, an initiative post-crash care as a crucial ingredient in for the Decade of Action for Road Safety. saving lives in the event of road accidents. The project has been initiated by the FIA president Jean Todt, who signed a Road Safety Fund and made possible memorandum of understanding for closer through global support for project work cooperation with IFRC president Tadateru that is part of the Decade of Action for Road The UN’s Ban Ki-moon Konoé in Geneva on World Red Cross Safety. It is primarily funded with a donation (second from right) with Red Crescent Day (below), said that the from Decade of Action global corporate the FIA Foundation’s expertise of IFRC staff would be of great supporter Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson. Sheila Watson and benefit in the promotion of post-crash care. Speaking at the launch school, Sivile other delegates. “Post-crash care is a key element of Primary in Western Cape, Mandela said: “We any effective road safety strategy,” he can and must do far more to protect our explained. “We can benefit greatly from children. Road traffic injury is a man-made the expertise and network of outstanding epidemic, but it is preventable. The vaccines GFEI CONTRIBUTES TO Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers, for this epidemic are readily available: safe FUEL ECONOMY DEBATE while also helping to increase public crossings, protected footpaths, and speed understanding of first aid through our restrictions; together with well-designed The FIA’s Global Fuel Economy Initiative automobile clubs worldwide and the FIA education programmes.” (GFEI) is playing a key role in high-level Action for Road Safety Campaign.” The project is a pioneering approach, discussions on energy efficiency as part The first fruits of the collaboration introducing safe road infrastructure to of preparations underway in Abu Dhabi for will come on World First Aid Day, which protect school children on the route to and the United Nations’ Climate Summit later takes place on September 13. The FIA from school, combined with road safety this year. and the IFRC will promote joint initiatives education for children and teachers. GFEI members briefed UN secretary during that month with member clubs Additional financing and technical general Ban Ki-moon on vehicle fuel and national partners worldwide, aimed support is provided by WorleyParsons, economy in a bilateral meeting on May 5. at raising awareness of the importance IVECO and the FIA Foundation. The Sheila Watson (above), executive secretary of first aid knowledge so that victims of International Road Assessment Programme, of the GFEI and FIA Foundation director of road accidents receive immediate care. iRAP, is working with local partners to environment, participated in the Abu Dhabi The initiative will also see the organisation introduce safe road infrastructure, while the Ascent Conference and met Ban Ki-moon. of first aid ‘snack’ training courses in Medical Research Council is coordinating The GFEI was one of a group of key public areas to increase knowledge the monitoring and evaluation of the project. stakeholders consulted by the UN secretary among drivers, and the creation of first aid A cluster of schools from low-income general on global efforts to address climate materials and documentation to be used in settlements in Western Cape have been change ahead of the UN’s summit in FIA clubs’ driving schools. selected as pilot sites for the project. September. Key participants included UN environment programme executive director Achim Steiner, UN energy chairman Kandeh Yumkella and environment advocate and philanthropist Al Gore. Speaking at the conference, Watson urged governments and the private sector to address fuel economy. “We know that cost-effective technical solutions exist, and we are sharing the best practice in policy. Now we need to match the political will of many more countries who want to save these resources with the greater engagement of the private sector, which will invest a staggering $400 trillion in fuels and vehicles between now and 2050,” she told the audience at the conference, which also included former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. “If we can harness the power of this investment opportunity,” she added, “we can FIA president Jean Todt help to save CO2, clean up our air and free and IFRC president up badly-needed resources for better use in Tadateru Konoé met to health, education and so on in some of the discuss post-crash care. poorest countries on the planet.”

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The Social Media Expert ALEX TRICKETT AUTO HEAD OF SPORT, TWITTER Motor sports were among the first on the grid when it came to Twitter engagement, and they continue to resonate strongly. The healthy appetite for technology and innovation, present in many ASKS motor sports fans, translates well to Twitter. Formula One teams have done a good job of feeding that interest over the years, breaking their news on Twitter. An exclusive first view of many 2014 cars came via a Tweet, followed by the chance for fans IS MOTOR SPORT around the world to ask questions about the new designs directly to drivers and engineers. This would never have been possible pre- Twitter and is a great use of the platform. It brings fans closer to the OFF THE PACE sport and its heroes, which is invaluable. The challenge now is to push beyond reactive debate, to find ways to empower fans, via social media, to influence the look and feel WHEN IT COMES of the sport they love. That’s starting to happen week-in, week-out in the player tunnels and stadia of football, rugby and cricket teams. TO SOCIAL MEDIA The Driver However, exclusive access is no good to a fan if they don’t know where to find it. F1 and other motor sports need to get better at KARUN CHANDHOK signposting these fan conversations, by using big screens, cars and ENGAGEMENT? drivers to flag pertinent # hashtags and @ handles. The Team Boss FORMULA E DRIVER FOR MAHINDRA Broadcast also has a huge role to play. In the UK, more than 90 MARK GALLAGHER RACING AND F1 COMMENTATOR per cent of online, public conversations about TV happen on Twitter, so it is imperative to tell those who are watching races live how to CEO, CMS MOTOR SPORT AND join the accompanying dialogue to deepen their involvement. And CO-OWNER STATUS GP3 TEAM It’s funny how the world has gone social media crazy in the last when they are on social media, use that opportunity to share instant decade. Today, if you don’t have a Facebook or Twitter page, highlights and bring in extra revenue via a sponsor at the same time. Plenty of racing drivers and teams If Facebook were a country, its population would make it the you’re looked down on. Teams, drivers, team principals, engineers, MotoGP has signed a Twitter Amplify deal to do just that. third largest on the planet. Twitter has become the most popular have a Facebook and Twitter designers and mechanics are all now expected to be putting out The foundations are in place, now is the time for motor sports to means of keeping abreast of breaking news for users in the G20 account these days, but how could updates almost instantaneously and are being judged based on the build bigger and better connections with their fans. number of followers they have or what their Tweets are like. Drivers economies, and 22 per cent of the world’s population now owns a they make the best use of them? who don’t share pictures are branded as snobs and aloof, while smartphone. Those three statistics alone illustrate why social media teams that have a self-deprecating sense of humour are hailed as is a mainstream communications tool. AUTO sought the views of motor being brilliant. After a slow start, motor sport has come to see the benefits of sport and industry insiders There’s no question about the importance of social media and being able to communicate easily, consistently and credibly with digital marketing. Today’s question for me is, could motor sport stakeholder audiences; the general public, fans, media, commercial personalities use these platforms to engage with the audience partners, suppliers, NGOs, regulators and governments. more actively? The answer is yes, of course we could. The problem, On Twitter, 20 of the 22 drivers in this year’s FIA Formula One however, is that we live in a more politically correct world where World Championship have personal accounts. Lewis Hamilton has people hang on every word and analyse everything that’s being said. the largest number of followers at 2.09 million, and in total F1’s Teams and sponsors are much more sensitive to comments and drivers have a cumulative following on the platform of 9.7 million. For criticism than they were 20 years ago. If you compare the attitudes, teams such as Ferrari, with almost 800,000 followers, it is a powerful comments and interviews today to how candid people like Prost, means of communicating with their fans, and we see the efforts of F1 Senna, Lauda and Mansell were, it’s poles apart. I would have loved teams duplicated across other categories of motor sport. to follow them on Twitter back then! This is good, but we cannot afford to be complacent. Footballer I have to say, though, that the fan interaction on social media Cristiano Ronaldo has 26.3 million followers – greater than all F1’s in NASCAR and IndyCar compared to other racing series is hugely drivers, teams and sponsors combined – while World Snooker different. The American-based series really encourage teams and impresario Barry Hearn sells his sport’s entire ticket allocation drivers to say what they think in the press and on social media, and through social media. The commercial opportunities are formidable. therefore they are less ‘on the leash’ and the fans take to them more. We also have to remember that social media is only one part of Perhaps that’s the lesson for the rest of motor sport – don’t be so a revolution where technologies are converging. In 2013 there were sensitive and politically correct and your social media engagement 1.7 billion cumulative viewings of online gamers, including those will become a whole lot better! participating in ‘virtual’ motor racing. So, 1.7 billion times last year someone logged on simply to watch someone else play a computer game. And they could interact with each other using social media in real time. The advent of professional online gaming and virtual athleticism opens up possibilities for sports to merge the real with the virtual; a powerful means to woo younger audiences. The technological, data-rich foundation of motor sport is ideal for this new era, as we look towards a future when global audiences can participate and interact with our sport in a very dynamic manner. Social networking will be one of the great enablers of that future. PHOTOGRAPHY: DPPI PHOTOGRAPHY:

22 23 The scanner at the Upright MRI AUTO/ ANALYSIS Centre in Leeds in the UK is big enough to take Formula Ford driver Jack Barlow as he would be seated in his race car. The FIA Institute’s Dr Paul Trafford (right) can then see how Barlow’s seating position affected the back injury he suffered in testing at Thruxton.

Formula Ford driver Jack Barlow is scanned with the same helmet and overalls he was wearing during his accident.

What do you get when you combine Europe’s largest Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner with one of the world’s most powerful computer simulations of the human body? A major leap Motor sport safety forward in motor sport safety. At least that is the hope of FIA Institute researchers, who have brought these two worlds together to help understand what happens THE BIG to a driver’s body in a crash and how injury can be minimised. To do this they are using the latest in scanning technology at the Upright MRI Centre in Leeds, England, which boasts a machine that is much wider and more open than the usual cylindrical MRI PICTURE scanner. This means that, for the first time, a scan can be taken of a driver while he is sitting in a full-size race seat. The results of these scans are then sent to Toyota, which has The FIA and Toyota are using Europe’s developed a computer model of the human body that it uses for virtual crash testing. Called the Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS), largest MRI scanner and a ground-breaking it is made up of almost two million elements that accurately computer model to determine how drivers’ reproduce the human form, from precise bone strength to the structure of organs. seating positions might affect their chances of Naturally, this project requires both safety research and medical sustaining a spinal injury in a race accident expertise, which is why FIA Institute medical advisor Dr Paul Trafford and research consultant Andy Mellor have teamed up in Leeds to test the process on the first driver. TEXT: MARC CUTLER PHOTOGRAPHY: WILL THOM That driver is Formula Ford GB racer Jack Barlow, who suffered a high-speed crash while testing at Thruxton. Barlow went off the track at a fast right-hander, rolled his car and came to rest upside down. The 18-year-old was able to climb out once the car had been righted, but was taken to Southampton General Hospital for checks where it was found he’d cracked a vertebra in his back. This scan is aiming to help further diagnose the injury and aid his recovery. In fact, it will help all drivers in the sport. As Mellor says: “We are seeing a significant number of spinal injuries in motor sport at the moment and they seem to be caused by frontal impacts as

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Barlow’s time in the well as vertical impacts. We’ve done as much research as information to Toyota to use in the simulation.” MRI scanner – and the we can with crash test dummies, but the dummies don’t For Barlow they already have a lot of information that results (above) – will simulate body architecture very well. So we are working will help. They have the data from his crashed car, his seat, be used to help him with Toyota to get a much better understanding of the his HANS device, his helmet and himself. All were put into continue to recover from his back injury. way in which the skeleton behaves in impact conditions.” the scanner along with a model of a steering wheel and The MRI scans will especially help researchers to get pedals so he was in exactly the same position as in the car. a better understanding of spinal geometry when drivers Following the successful scan of Barlow, the next aim are in a race seat. The theory is that injury could be in the project is to work with Toyota World Endurance minimised by ensuring that a driver’s spine is not loaded Championship drivers Anthony Davidson and Alex Wurz. in an undesirable way, by enhancing seat design. During the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours, Davidson was involved The scans will enable Mellor and his team to provide in an accident where his car somersaulted and landed in a accurate environments and seating positions – including crash barrier, injuring his back in the process. F1, rallying and Le Mans – for Toyota to test in its THUMS “Toyota can run their simulation to see if the model programme. That programme can provide detail far gets the injury in the same place as Davidson suffered it beyond normal medical simulations. in real life,” says Trafford. “Then we can start moving the “The processing power of THUMS is off the scale seat, altering the foams and changing the geometry to see compared to anything we use on our desks,” says Mellor. what happens and whether we can reduce this injury.” “There are almost two million detailed elements and it takes Then they will measure Wurz’s seating geometry and over a full day to do one run. It provides lots of detail.” put that into the programme. One of the areas Mellor and Trafford will be focusing “Wurz is 10 inches taller than Davidson so we should on with the MRI study is the pelvic position that drivers get a much better feel of how different their orientations naturally adopt. They will then view the response from are when sat in the same car. That is then going to be the that position as it is forced into different postures to see if key data that will be fed into the THUMS model, so when that is more or less painful in a number of outcomes. we are simulating identical accident events for those “There are two things that we think might be relevant two drivers we can see whether either one of them is in a for our studies,” says Mellor. “First of all, you have better or worse position for the G-loads they sustain.” the geometry that the driver is forced to sit in by seat That is where the programme can really make great design, but also you have the posture that the driver strides in improving driver safety. chooses to adopt when he is seated and we think one “It is exciting and interesting work,” agrees Trafford. interesting element of that is pelvic rotation. Pre-position “It’s quite complicated getting data to feed into a computer of the pelvis at the start of an accident or before it has to simulate crashes and predict injuries, but we are trying developed might be significant in the injury outcome.” to build a crash programme on a simulator where we can Both Mellor and Trafford agree that the position of then change the parameters such as the seating angle to the vertebrae directly influences the potential for spinal predict and solve problems before they occur.” injury in an accident. This is where the potential for safety improvement is “The THUMS system can simulate the position of huge. “We can then look at whether certain drivers are every vertebra,” adds Trafford. “So if we could measure getting injuries because they are sitting at an angle that where the vertebrae are in the first place, where the puts more pressure on their spines. That is what we are driver is sitting and where his pelvis is, we can give that trying to understand.”

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New truck legislation THE LONG HAUL TO SAFETY

With recent research revealing that over 4000 people were killed in truck-related accidents in Europe in 2011, the EU, backed by the FIA, is taking action to radically reshape the lorries of the future

TEXT: BEN BARRY

According to data assembled by the European Transport Safety Council, in 2011 some 4,300 people were killed on EU roads in lorry-related accidents, and poor visibility from the driver’s cab, a lack of crumple zones and the ease with which objects can become trapped under truck wheels is often to blame. Pedestrians and cyclists are particularly vulnerable, with six cyclists killed in London due to collisions with trucks and buses over just two weeks in November 2013. Now, new proposals voted through by the European Parliament and supported by the FIA aim to increase truck dimensions in order to drastically improve not only safety but driver comfort and fuel efficiency. The proposals would bring benefits to everyone, from cyclists navigating city centre rush-hour traffic to the long-distance truckers who spend an average of 4.6 nights per week sleeping in their cabs, and the hauliers striving to drive down costs. With lorries currently consuming 80 billion litres of diesel per year and emitting six per cent of all European CO2 emissions, there are also clear environmental gains. If European member states approve the new legislation by 2015, it could become mandatory by 2022 and perhaps as early as 2018, radically altering the appearance of trucks on European roads. Existing regulations have their origins in the 1980s and were last refined in 1996, limiting overall truck length to 16.5 metres. A bluff cab design allows for the maximum The MAN Concept S truck and cargo space within this footprint, but also creates Krone AeroLiner trailer form one substantial air resistance, which accounts for up to 37 per streamlined unit that brings cent of the total energy required by all long-haul trucks. huge aerodynamic gains, Furthermore, existing truck designs are neither resulting in reduced fuel optimised for active (i.e. driver visibility) or passive consumption and CO2 emissions

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(i.e. crumple zones) safety, nor driver comfort; a change predicted to drop by up to 25 per cent. requirement for flexibility while fuel-saving technology is a high priority for both MEPs and the FIA. “The area in which considerable CO2 savings can continues to race ahead. “We strongly support the Parliament’s position to be realised are in the consideration of truck and trailer Carl-Johan Almqvist is traffic and safety director at get safer and more fuel-efficient models onthe market together, and the aerodynamic design of the vehicle as Volvo Trucks, a subsidiary of the Volvo Group that also as soon as possible,” says FIA regionaI director general, whole. That’s where the biggest potential is,” says MAN owns Renault Trucks, Mack Trucks and UD Trucks. “We Jacob Bangsgaard. “Truck manufacturers will have more Concept S CEO Anders Nielsen. need a good regulation that will remain stable, survive design space for the front end of the cab, allowing a more At the front, the Concept S’s rounded nose, the over time to provide planning certainty and that ensures streamlined nose. Some of the extra cab space will be reduced area of its mirrors and the streamlined, sufficient flexibility to accommodate future transport used to get rid of blind spots, include a crumple zone integrated fuel tanks create far less drag. The spoiler is developments and demands,” he says. and make sure pedestrians and cyclists are not knocked also integrated into the roof of the driver’s cab, closing Almqvist counters MAN’s focus on aerodynamic underneath the wheels in the case of a collision.” the gap between the cab and trailer so that air can flow optimisation: “Truck manufacturers do need additional Under the proposals, a slightly longer nose for the over the two without interruption. space in the cab and chassis in order to drive fuel truck cab – known as the tractor unit – would increase Further aerodynamic optimisation includes the efficiency, safety and driver comfort, but it is particularly aerodynamic efficiency by 12 per cent, yielding fuel ‘side finishers’, the body trim that extends towards the important for incorporating fuel-efficiency innovations savings of three to five per cent. Together, the innovations road surface. This also reduces noise pollution and the such as waste heat recovery and alternative fuel would cut diesel costs for the average long-haul truck by likelihood of pedestrians or cyclists being knocked powertrains. Aerodynamic improvements are important around £1,450 (€1,800) per year at today’s prices and under the wheels. but only one means among many others of improving save billions of gallons of fuel across the EU. But while manufacturers have welcomed the fuel efficiency, since a lot has been done in recent years. The FIA contributed to making the new cab design new legislation, the need for clarity and consistency A state-of-the-art truck can already gain one to three mandatory, which would allow for a deeper windscreen, in its implementation has been stressed, as has the per cent in fuel savings.” creating a wider field of vision for the driver and making Volvo’s Concept Truck 2020 addresses the issues pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists far more visible. raised by the legislation in combining existing technology In the event of an accident, new designs would also “ THIS IS A PARADIGM with more radical ideas. For instance, pilot trials are incorporate a crumple zone in the nose, with the aim of already being conducted for fully autonomous passenger preventing cyclists and pedestrians from being run over SHIFT THAT WILL cars, and the Concept Truck 2020 proposes linking and reducing the impact of head-on collisions with other trucks together wirelessly into long trains. These road vehicles. Against heavy counter-lobbying, the FIA also DRASTICALLY AFFECT trains would autonomously slipstream each other campaigned for aerodynamic flaps on the rear of trucks HOW WE BUILD OUR along designated ‘green corridors’ at 55mph (90kmh), to become mandatory. increasing safety while reducing both driver fatigue and MAN Truck & Bus’s Concept S gives one possible TRUCKS. WE’RE NOT fuel consumption. vision of how the new legislation might be interpreted. Passive safety has been addressed with a lower In this design study, the MAN Concept S and the TALKING ABOUT MINOR frontal section of the cab, which projects forward by Krone AeroLiner trailer form one streamlined unit CHANGES, BUT A NEW half a metre compared with existing designs in order to to give the cargo volume of a conventional truck but integrate collision-protection technology. This provides a a drag coefficient of just 0.30Cd; that’s a substantial GENERATION AND crumple zone in the event of a head-on collision and also leap from today’s 0.50Cd and equivalent to the most CONCEPT OF TRUCKS.” improves aerodynamics. aerodynamically efficient passenger cars. As a result, The cab of the Volvo Concept Truck 2020 is spacious fuel consumption and therefore CO2 emissions are CARL-JOHAN ALMQVIST, VOLVO TRUCKS and airy. A thin driver’s seat saves space, while a mesh, ventilated backrest increases comfort. Behind the driver a futon sofa folds out into a bed, while electronically controlled blackout screening ensures the driver is rested. As yet, technical requirements are still to be finalised on the EU proposals, and with the product life cycle of truck cabs being almost double that of passenger cars at 15 years, members of the ACEA (Association des Constructeurs Européens d’Automobiles) are petitioning for a moratorium on new body designs until at least 2025 in order to safeguard ‘competitive neutrality’. “This is a paradigm shift that will drastically affect how we build our trucks,” says Almqvist. “We’re not talking about minor changes in the form of traditional Above from top: Carl-Johan facelifts, but a new generation and concept of trucks that Almqvist of Volvo Trucks, MAN would need the appropriate amount of time for planning Concept S CEO Anders Nielsen and preparation.” and FIA regional director general Despite the diverse benefits, the ACEA states that Jacob Bangsgaard are all striving key to the legislation’s success is reducing haulier costs. to improve truck safety for the Initial research carried out by campaign group Transport 21st century. Left: Volvo’s Concept and Environment predicts that the implementation of the Truck 2020 proposes linking legislation would add £320-1,200 (€400-1,500) to the lorries together in a train to run along ‘green corridors’ on roads typical cost of each truck, a figure that would be recouped at a 55mph limit within a year through lower diesel expenditure. Work remains to be done, but a future of safer, cleaner, more comfortable trucks on European roads could be a reality within a decade.

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Loeb in the WTCC REBORN TO WIN

Since switching codes to the World Touring Car Championship, nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb has shown the same sort of winning potential. And Citroën Racing is only too happy to be joining him for the ride

TEXT: BEN BARRY

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Clockwise from top left: On the start grid of Citroën’s first race in the FIA World don’t push so hard to overtake, because you know the car Citroën Racing team Touring Car Championship, factory driver José María behind is faster, so you let him past. It wasn’t this kind of boss Yves Matton; Loeb López was on pole after a stunning qualifying lap in intense fight that I discovered with the Porsche Supercup tops the WTCC podium Marrakech. Yvan Muller, four-time series champion and FIA GT Series, where the adrenaline is very high.” at round one in and key sounding board in the Citroën WTCC team’s Loeb has been making the switch to front-wheel- Morocco; with team- mate and reigning development, had been dropped from third to fourth drive touring cars look easy, but his nonchalant champion Yvan Muller; after cutting a chicane. Even without a third driver, demeanour belies the endless hours of preparation and Loeb continued his Citroën’s marketing machine would’ve been in overdrive: the difficulties he’s faced. strong run of form at the the young Argentinian to tap the Latin American market; “In rally you never drive 100 per cent of the car’s Salzburgring in Austria the renowned French world champion who was at last performance,” says Citroën Racing technical director to lie third in the driving for a domestic brand. Xavier Mestelan-Pinon. “It’s too dangerous, there could championship points But between Lopez and Muller, nine-time World be mud on a corner, but on the circuit it’s 100 per cent all behind his team-mates. Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb had qualified second on the time. During our Abu Dhabi test I saw Seb brake in his WTCC debut. Tellingly, it was his C-Elysée race car the middle of the track. He was not close to the wall, he that Citroën boss Frédéric Banzet stood watch over on still wants a margin, but on a circuit you must not have the grid the next day. The media, too, swarmed around it. a margin. We work on this, with the engineer, the data It confirmed what many suspected: without Loeb, there engineer, and with video, to understand how to drive.” would probably be no Citroën WTCC campaign. “There were two reasons to go into the WTCC,” says Banzet. “One was to promote the C-Elysée, which is a very important car in our international development. The “I HAVE NOT second was to keep capitalising on the image of Sébastien Loeb; we grew together in motor sports. To be perfectly honest, Sébastien was the first person mentioning the BEEN SURPRISED WTCC, probably more than two years ago.” That debut in Morocco – the second step of the OR IMPRESSED podium for race one, a commanding win from a reverse grid in race two – got Loeb’s WTCC career off to a stellar WITH SEB – I WAS start against his team-mates and the Lada Grantas, Chevrolet Cruzes and Honda Civics of the opposition. EXPECTING IT.” Subsequent results have proved the weekend was no fluke. It’s what the world expects. “The non-specialist YVAN MULLER people in France, they think I am the quickest driver in the world,” says Loeb, “so I should win everything. They don’t understand that this is a new discipline.” The fundamental driving style required for the Yet even Muller concurs with those ‘non-specialists’. WTCC, too, was different. Loeb might have started “I have not been surprised or impressed with Seb,” says his career in front-wheel-drive rally cars and is known the reigning WTCC champion, “I was expecting it. He as a Tarmac specialist, but the technique of driving a is a nine-time world champion and almost did Formula front-wheel-drive car on a narrow, twisting rally stage is One; he’s one of the best drivers in the world.” a world away from the space and speed of a race track. With nothing left to prove, Loeb could have hung up What’s more, the WTCC cars are far removed from the his overalls and dabbled in motor sport to blow off steam. powerful rear-wheel-drive machinery Loeb sampled last But the 40-year-old Frenchman is no dilettante: he’s now year in the Porsche Supercup and FIA GT Series, adding working harder than ever – similar media commitments a further layer of confusion. to the WRC but additional testing and simulator work “I begin to feel better with front-wheel drive now, more than offset the shorter race weekends – and says his but when I started it was disturbing,” says Loeb. “I was motivation is higher for the WTCC than it would have making a lot of mistakes. It’s not natural to accelerate been had he stayed in the WRC. Insiders describe Loeb sometimes in the entry of the corner – normally you variously as reinvigorated, happier and not so bored. always brake until later in the corner and accelerate “I wanted to retire from rallying,” he says, “but I later. And with this car, so as not to understeer in the knew that I am not able to stay at home and stop driving. I slow corners, you have a balance that is quite light on had some experience in racing with GT cars and I always the rear, and so in the slow it’s good but in the fast enjoyed it, so I said it could be nice to drive in racing after sometimes it’s very light and you have to play with the rallying. I grew up with Citroën since I started in rallying, throttle just to keep the balance of the car. It’s a bit so it was a nice challenge to continue with them, and in a special in the beginning.” world championship. It was the best choice.” Citroën Racing has faced a similarly involved Despite finishing second at Le Mans in 2006, and his transition from rallying. The team remains committed eponymous racing team contesting the LMP2 class this to the WRC until the end of 2015, and still offers the DS3 year, Loeb says he never seriously considered a return to R3 entry-level rally car, but has scaled back its WRC La Sarthe and the World Endurance Championship. involvement. The customer WRC division that supported “I enjoyed Le Mans, the cars are very fast, but the fight Robert Kubica has been wound up, as has the Citroën isn’t the same [as in sprint races],” he explains. “You just Junior WRC team that both Kimi Räikkönen and current need to have the best rhythm and to be consistent. You World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier drove for.

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Loeb undertook development work on Citroën’s WTCC car while still driving part- time in the WRC. Left: there’s no need for a co-driver any more...

Hence Citroën Racing’s Versailles headquarters has the C-Elysée and produces 280bhp from its naturally has the most to lose. I suggest it’s Muller; there looks to not been expanded, the workforce remains 200-strong, “THE CHALLENGE aspirated engine. The Kit Cars could sometimes beat be a high possibility that Loeb the rookie could topple and 95 per cent of personnel now work on the WTCC WRC cars on Tarmac. In early tests, Citroën used the Muller the incumbent champion. Matton disagrees. programme, many across both disciplines or just on the IS EXCITING. I LIKE Xsara to assess the durability of such components as the “It was more natural in rally,” says Matton. “Seb was WTCC after being transferred from customer projects. suspension wishbones when jumping race-circuit kerbs. coming from his motorcycle and learning step-by-step There was no recruitment campaign for circuit specialists TO DO THINGS But it was with today’s DS3 rally car that development and growing. This is completely different: here it’s a guy – although some engineers had previously worked in F1 really hit its stride. The C-Elysée is based on the same who was nine-times world champion and who needs to and endurance racing – so the team essentially started platform and the regulations call for a similar 1.6-litre prove very fast that he’s at the level. Maybe he is working from scratch. They attended touring car and DTM CORRECTLY; I DO turbo engine – though equipped with a larger air restrictor harder now because the time is short to get to the level. races and took photographs in the pits to painstakingly and turbocharger – so the guts of a DS3 rally car took “Yvan has experience from the discipline and all examine later, learning vicariously. Others got hands-on NOT LIKE LOSING.” preparations to the next level. The team made it wider, the good tips from the races, and Seb does not have the experience working with Loeb in the FIA GT Series. SÉBASTIEN LOEB increased the wheelbase, added a splitter, a bigger rear experience of door-to-door racing, except from a little in “It’s really different,” says team boss Yves Matton. wing, increased the power and began to experiment. the Porsche Supercup and FIA GTs. Yvan knows when he “In rally, you see the driver three times for 30 minutes in “WTCC is so different to what we knew,” says can try something and when it is better to wait a bit.” the day, and there’s more improvisation. In WTCC you Mestelan-Pinon. “Here, it’s important to adjust the For now, Matton declares himself delighted with need the perfect lap, perfect corner, perfect car… There proper aero balance, but in a rally car it’s fixed. With the team dynamic, and with how Muller has helped are more demands on analysing data, and maybe we have “You can’t compare the cars with what we had the rally car we worked with CFD [Computational Fluid both López and Loeb flourish. But as Loeb learns, his more time in rally where you can rest for five minutes, but before,” says Muller. “They are completely different, Dynamics] and in the wind tunnel with a model, so we racecraft improves, and as the season plays out it’ll be here you’re busy from the start of the day to the end.” but we needed this step – the previous cars weren’t sexy did the job in the past, but we didn’t put so much energy fascinating to see if he can get the upper hand over his On the flipside, coming into the championship just enough. The Citroën is nice to drive – more powerful, a into it. Now downforce is crucial. It’s also important to wily countryman – and how Muller responds if he does. as the WTCC’s new TC1 rules took hold helped to level bit more grippy – but I am surprised by the gap between work at tyre management, the balance of the car… But in “I hope I will have some good results,” says Loeb, the playing field. It allowed Citroën to get to grips with us and the rest. I believe the Chevy and even the Lada rally you work a lot on suspension, here you don’t, maybe “but I don’t do it for my reputation, I wanted to do the new technical regulations – upping power from 320 won’t stay there, they have to progress, so the gap will be except with Morocco because of the kerbs.” something like this. I don’t have the same pressure to win to 380bhp, the wheels from 17 to 18 inches, the bodywork reduced. The season is long and we must stay focused.” Loeb started the C-Elysée’s development programme that I had in rally, because I was praying all my career on becoming wider, the aerodynamics far more aggressive The genesis of Citroën’s WTCC programme harks while driving part-time in the WRC, with Muller and this. Now a big part of my career is behind me. But I have – while existing teams battled to the end of last season. back to the genesis of its WRC programme over a López contributing when they later signed to the team. the motivation to win – the challenge is exciting for me, I Even before the first race, the French debutants were decade ago: namely, the Xsara ‘Kit Car’ that competed In fact, Muller was signed on the understanding that all like to do things correctly and I don’t like to lose.” championship favourites; in the first qualifying sessions, in the WRC’s second tier in the days before Super telemetry and engineering data would be shared between No doubt about it, Muller will need to be on his game they were as much as a second a lap ahead. 2000. It has front-wheel drive, similar dimensions to the three drivers. It begs an interesting question as to who to win that fifth championship in 2014. PHOTOGRAPHY: DPPI PHOTOGRAPHY:

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BAGS OF POTENTIAL

Widely featured as a safety device since the 1980s, it would be easy to imagine that airbag development has peaked. In fact the contrary is true, and as new safety systems evolve, so too does airbag technology

TEXT: MATT YOUSON

These are interesting times in the area of car safety. Hesitantly at first, but with growing belief, several nations are starting to discuss the path to achieving zero road deaths within their borders. The key, it seems, lies in sensors, communications and algorithms: cars capable of making decisions faster and better than their drivers. But what of established safety systems? Does the development of automated collision- avoidance technology reduce the value of seatbelts, deformation structures and airbags? The experts say no. In fact, these technologies have never been more relevant. Airbags in particular are part of the revolution, albeit now as the final – rather than front – line of defence. The smart systems tasked with crash avoidance also aid in the next-stage development of existing systems: while the need for airbags may be reduced, their effectiveness is also being increased, working in combination with other systems to better cocoon drivers and passengers in worst-case scenarios. Of course, those scenarios are many and varied, and so airbag capability is evolving to cater for the different eventualities in which their deployment is necessary. This may seem a new facet of the technology’s development but in truth such evolution goes back to the early days of general industry uptake of airbag technology, as Phillip Sproston, safety integration programme manager at automotive research agency MIRA, explains. “There has been a great deal of progress in those 20 or more years,” he says. “We have gone from the single-driver airbag to a car with lots of airbags, some of which are really quite unusual. The standard types today are the driver and passenger airbags, the curtain airbags and thorax modules that cover the head and pelvis. Then we have the more exotic variants: airbags that go under seats, in between the seats and even, for some small cars, behind the seats.” While manufacturers are keen to grab attention with their systems, the impetus behind the increased Airbags have been sophistication of airbag provision has been a mix of higher- developed to do much quality empirical data and more stringent legislation. As more than just protect tests such as those carried out by NCAPs worldwide become the driver, and as such harder to pass, so vehicle designers need to blend structural still play a crucial role developments with improved restraint technology. in car safety systems.

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AIR TIME “It’s driven by legals and consumer testing,” says airbags in 2000. We added door-mounted inflatable Sproston. “The tests have become more difficult to pass curtains for convertibles in 2004, extended inflatable safety belt, the bill stipulates as new tests have been introduced, so we’ve needed to curtains to enhance child safety in 2007 and, most 1940s that within three years new find new restraint system solutions. The introduction of recently, the pedestrian airbag on the V40 in 2012.” First airbag-like devices – air cars must be equipped with things like curtain and knee airbags are the result of the The early airbag systems frequently used the word filled rubber bladders – are protective safety devices requirement to get a good EuroNCAP rating. However, in ‘cushion’ – for instance the GM system introduced for envisaged. that do not have to be the background is the driver of real-world accident data US Government vehicles in the ’70s used the acronym activated by the occupants. and a better understanding of what is killing people.” ACRS, for Air Cushion Restraint System. It isn’t wrong The nature of the industry and the way in which data to describe the function of an airbag in this way but 1950s Mercedes-Benz re- is collected make a strong argument for the evolution of it does perhaps undersell the various tasks the airbag In the US John W Hetrick, a introduces the airbag in airbag technology being, in essence, a logical progression. now performs. Obviously it manages the dissipation of retired industrial engineer, Germany as an option on its “Essentially, you look for trends,” says Sproston. “As you kinetic energy, increasing the ‘ride down’ time (i.e. the receives a patent in 1953 W126 model. In 1988, the introduce airbags, ABS, ESP etc, so you see a change in time taken for the body to cease motion), but part of this for what he called a “safetysafety company introduces the the type of injuries people are sustaining.” increase is caused not by the gradual deflation of the bag cushion assembly for ffrontront papassengerssenger airbagairbag in ititss With data naturally following behind the industry but by holding the occupant firmly in position. The ride- automotive vehicles”.. 19881988 S-cS-classlass ssaloon.aloon. standard, there’s a typical lag of around five years down effect is enhanced by the occupant having a better At the same time, GGermanerman ThThee 19198787 PorschePorsche TurboTurbo between the mainstream introduction of a system and connection with the restraining structure of the vehicle inventor Walter Linderererer is the firstfirst car to equip both meaningful data being accrued out on the road. That’s and its deformation zones. develops a similar system.stem. front seats with airbags.airbags. been a factor in the frequency of introduction for new Head and thorax side-impact bags, and curtain Early systems are airbag technology since the 1980s. systems, fulfil the same function when the vehicle rudimentary, with onee 1955 “The industry started off with the hard-to-do stuff is hit from the side, but also have the added benefit patent describing a systemystem like frontal impact work,” says Sproston. “Then we found of preventing the occupant from being ejected or similar to today’s, butt withwith out that side impacts are responsible for a lot of injuries, partially ejected from the vehicle. And all the airbags so side airbags were developed. Then attention turned to the significant exceptiontion fulfil the function of spreading loads across the body, the number of lower leg injuries, leading to EuroNCAP diminishing the chance of injuries to the neck and chest that the driver himselff introducing lower leg measurements which, in turn, led to but also aiding the prevention of internal injuries. The had to deploy the bagg by knee airbags, dual pretensioners and redesigned fascias.” most effective systems in this regard see the airbags 1991990s0s pressing a button. Anotherother Jan Ivarsson, senior manager of safety strategy and functioning as part of a larger energy management early debate focused on In 1994, VoVolvolvo launcheslaunches requirements at Volvo Cars, takes a few moments to system tailoring a ride-down scenario, working in the use of a pyrotechnicnic side-impact airbaairbagsgs and decide which of its models contains the highest number conjunction with seatbelts featuring pretensioners (to charge to inflate the airbagairbag followsfollows it iinn ’97’97 wiwithth tthehe of airbags. It is, he decides, the V40, which features eight, take up slack) and load limiters (to release it gradually). with gas. llaunchh off iinflatablefl bl side-id including the revolutionary pedestrian airbag. Other “From our perspective at Volvo we have always held to impact curtains. marques feature more, but no brand is quite so closely the belief that the seatbelt is the primary restraint and the 1960s In 1998 the US federal associated with the introduction of restraint technology. airbag is supplementary to that,” says Ivarsson. Top: Today’s devoted to better understanding impacts. The front ends In 1967, Mercedes-Benz government mandates “We started to make really safe cars in the 1970s “They have to work together,” adds Sproston. “The airbags work in of vehicles have been softened and greater separation conjunction with begins developing airbags. duel frontal airbags on all and introduced high levels of performance in frontal restraint system as a whole is managing energy in the between bonnet and engine blocks encouraged – but seatbelts to collisions then,” he says. “We did a lot of experimental occupant as they go from 35mph to 0mph in 0.5 metres. relatively little can be done to protect a pedestrian from Also in ’67, US inventor passenger vehicles. lessen the impact Allen K Breed designs a work with new structures but also with different types That’s a difficult task. The introduction of the load limiter of a collision, and the hard points of wiper fixtures and necessarily-strong simple electromechanical of head restraint, and at that point we started to see that has been very beneficial because it allows the car to start also provide extra A-pillars. MIRA’s pedestrian protection lab has been there were good possibilities to increase performance by absorbing energy early in the crash. Then, when the at the forefront of the research, developing specialist sensor allowing for the protection in the including an airbag, particularly on the driver’s side. airbag takes over, it can limit the amount of energy going event of a side head-forms and leg-forms to use in testing criteria for a inflation of an airbag inside “We introduced our first driver’s airbag in the ’80s, into the seatbelt and prevent some severe situations. impact, below. number of car companies. a 30-millisecond timeframe. soon followed by the passenger airbag. Then our first “Otherwise you have force going in from the airbag “There was quite a push recently from EuroNCAP airbags for side-impact came along in the early ’90s and from the seatbelt, and the two systems will cause to get pedestrian protection into the marketplace,” says 1970s followed by the curtain airbag system in 1998 that added injuries. There is a much higher rate of survivability with Sproston. “It’s not an easy task because it has to involve Oldsmobile’s Toronado protection for rear-seat passengers. That system was an a load-limiting system – but you have to match the level of the design of the front end of the car. There are specific (below) becomes the first enabler for introducing rollover protection, which we the load limiting to the stiffness of the airbag and the crash guidelines about sharp points, radius and materials used car with a passenger airbag. added in 2002. Before that we had introduced dual-stage performance of the vehicle. They have to work together to on the front of the car, which are not easy to develop Ford and GM start to install 2000s achieve a big step change in the injury criteria.” unless you do it right from the concept stage of car airbags in some vehicles. Volvo introduces dual-stage One of the latest developments in the world of airbag design, and it’s taken quite a few years for design-cycles inflation airbags in 2000. “ THERE ARE technology is the above-mentioned pedestrian airbag, to synchronise with those. In ’07 the company debuts fitted as standard to Volvo’s latest V40 hatchback. It “The main issue with airbags and pedestrian safety extended inflatable curtains DEFINITELY MORE encapsulates many of the modern drivers for airbags: it is is the sensing: fitting an airbag or an activator under for enhanced child safety. heavily integrated with sensor technology, is a response a bonnet is relatively easy, but determining when that In 2006, Honda to stringent new testing criteria and deals with a genuine system should fire is difficult. A human leg is only six CHALLENGES FOR risk of serious injury highlighted by real-world data. inches in diameter and is quite soft. The sensing system introduces the first airbag “Looking at the V40, you can see it has fairly short needs to be very precise to assess that contact. Volvo’s systems for motorcycles. AIRBAGS AND overhangs so, from an exposure perspective, a pedestrian’s solutions are a sophisticated example of work that’s 1980s head and torso are at risk of coming into contact with the occupying a lot of design time within the industry.” 2010s In the US, a controversial LOTS OF CHANGE wipers and A-pillars,” explains Ivarsson. “This was the In the pedestrian airbag system seven sensors bill in 1984 speeds up airbag World’s first pedestrian reason we introduced the pedestrian airbag: it protects the embedded in the front of the car transmit signals to a development. Focusing on airbag introduced on Volvo’s COMING.” head from having a stiff contact with these areas.” control unit. When the car comes into contact with an the dangers of not using a V40 model. Pedestrian-impact research has been a big issue object, the control unit evaluates the signals and if it PHILLIP SPROSTON, MIRA since the turn of the century with a great deal of time registers a human-like leg form, the airbag is deployed.

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Formula E

The bonnet hinges are equipped with pyrotechnical NO AIRBAG, release mechanisms that, when the system is activated, BLUEPRINT pull out a pin and release the rear of the bonnet. At the NO SAFETY same time, the airbag is inflated. During the inflation sequence, the airbag raises the bonnet. It is lifted 10 NCAP testing has revealed FOR SUCCESS centimetres and stays in the raised position. a dire need for airbag safety The added gap between the bonnet and the hard components in the engine compartment gives space for in some parts of the world the bonnet to deform, absorbing energy and dampening With 10 top teams, an array of world-class drivers, glamorous locations and ground-breaking the impact of the pedestrian’s head and chest. Airbags have become an technology, does the all-electric Formula E have what it takes to spark a true racing revolution? “The purpose is to help protect these vulnerable road integral part of modern car users in certain situations when they impact the bonnet safety systems and yet some TEXT: TONY THOMAS ILLUSTRATION: GRAHAM MURDOCH and the area around the windscreen,” explains Professor new cars are still manufactured Lotta Jakobsson, a senior safety specialist at Volvo. “It without airbags as standard. has a dual function. It raises the bonnet to create distance Global NCAP recently but it also it helps to cushion the impact by covering the released data on new cars hard parts around the windscreen.” crash-tested in India and South History suggests airbag technology swiftly spreads America with shocking results. through a fleet of cars after its initial introduction – but In India, all the cars selected in this case Volvo, from the outset, has insisted that its by Global NCAP for testing pedestrian airbag is a solution engineered specifically for the V40 and may not feature on subsequent new in a frontal impact at 64km/h models – particularly those that don’t share the V40’s received zero-star adult front-end geometry. protection ratings. They “We continue to look at active energy absorption included India’s best-selling technology such as pedestrian airbags or deployable car, the Suzuki-Maruti Alto hoods – but if you look at cars with a longer overhang, 800, as well as the Tata Nano, we’d definitely prefer to go for pedestrian detection and Ford Figo, Hyundai i10 and auto-braking,” says Ivarsson. “The car that can detect a Volkswagen Polo. pedestrian and use an auto-braking function to avoid a Global NCAP chose the entry- collision is a more efficient way forward. That is the main level version of each model and track of our future research – it has the potential to avoid none were fitted with airbags some collisions altogether but also, where a collision can’t as standard. VW is withdrawing be avoided, it can greatly reduce the energy involved.” the non-airbag version of the Auto-braking and auto-steering are both huge areas Polo from sale in India. of contemporary interest as the automotive industry switches its focus to collision avoidance rather than It is a similar situation in mitigation. If Volvo is less than convinced about the South America where nine new future of its pedestrian airbag, doesn’t that imply airbag Volvo’s V40 includes the models tested, including those development in general is going to drift off the radar? pioneering pedestrian sold by major manufacturers airbag, which lifts the “You’d expect that, but what we’ve seen is quite the such as VW, Peugeot, Fiat, bonnet and covers part of opposite,” argues Sproston. “What’s really happening is the windscreen in a bid to Renault and Ford, did not offer that industry standards are becoming more difficult to limit serious head injuries. airbags as standard. reach and authorities insist legal requirements are met as if these other avoidance systems didn’t work. The NCAP bodies will continue to move the goalposts, changing the protocol every two years to give the restraint systems engineers harder targets to reach, so there are definitely more challenges for airbags and lots of change coming.” “I think for the future we will continue to work on all areas of restraint,” adds Ivarsson. “As we move forward we will add in more advanced sensor technologies that support automatic braking and steering. They’ll also support restraint sequences starting before physical contact between cars. That does mean there is more potential performance to get out of airbags. Yes, some collisions will be avoided, but there will still be collisions. The next development step is having these sensors work together with the structures, the seatbelts and the airbags to reduce the effect of impacts as much as possible.” And this, essentially, is the key message. Technology will make collisions less common but will not eradicate them. The restraint systems become the last line of defence – but this does not diminish their value.

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s revolutions go, this one’s going to be pretty quiet. Almost silent, in fact. For in ditching more than a century of motoring and motor sport heritage and abandoning the internal combustion engine in favour of battery- powered electric motors, Formula E has taken the most radical technical step in motor sport, ever. Too bold a claim? Not really. For since the earliest motor races of the very late 19th century, contests have taken place almost uniquely between cars powered by internal combustion engines running on some kind of fossil fuel. Yes, by the second decade of the 21st century these motors have become supremely sophisticated and efficient. Yet their carbon-consuming innards are in essence no different from those heavy-metal lumps that powered motor sport’s pioneers. But maybe not for much longer. The marquee world motor sport categories, Formula One and the World Endurance Championship, are committed to using a range of hybrid and alternative energy power units that are hastening the ‘greening’ of motor sport. Formula E, meanwhile, which hosts its inaugural race this September in Beijing, is truly pioneering, in that its cars will not rely on fossil fuel at all as its means of propulsion. The category was created by the FIA in 2012 as a visionary look at a possible motor sport future and since then developments have moved on apace, driven by the series’ charismatic promoter Alejandro Agag.

POWER PLAYER: THE ENTREPRENEUR “We saw the potential immediately,” enthuses Agag, casting his mind back 18 or so months to the moment when he put forward his bid to become, in effect, ‘Mr Formula E’. With a successful background in motor sport through the Addax GP2 team and political connectedness arising from a two-year spell in the European parliament, multi-lingual Spaniard Agag was well placed to seize the opportunity offered by the creation of a championship with sustainability as its central ethos. But still he and his backers (notably prime investor Enrique Banuelos, a Spanish property developer who committed £60 million to the series) had to believe that an eco-championship might work and then have the conviction to drive its development forward. The key to his certainty, he says, was a growing awareness that motor sport sponsors were becoming increasingly animated about the need for the sport to

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like Beijing and London. It was a gamble, but it has paid off.” Those premium locations have attracted sponsorship – enough, it is planned, to compensate for the lack of hosting fees. “Sponsors are attracted because we’re electric, so sustainable and green,” says Agag, “but secondly because the racing is inside the cities, so more appreciated by sponsors. Hospitality-wise, city races are a big draw.”

BRIGHT SPARKS: THE TECHNICIANS Before Formula E, there was Spark Racing Technology, an ambitious French engineering company that had developed an electric race car in search of a series. Headed by Frédéric Vasseur, a GP2 rival of Agag, Spark had created the Formulec demonstration electric single-seater, and this vehicle forms the basis of the SRT_01E that will be the sole machine racing in the first Formula E championship. It has been constructed via a classic out-sourced expert supplier model, common throughout the racing industry: chassis from Dallara; batteries from Williams Advanced Engineering; motors, transmission and electronics from McLaren Electronic Systems; safety and systems integration by Renault; tyres from Michelin. Clearly, there’s no lack of industry firepower behind the series, even if, says Vasseur, co-ordinating these motor sport titans has presented challenges of its own. “But this was the only way to do it,” he says, “as it’s impossible to build everything yourself, especially when you are trying to get something off the ground. We have some very high- level partners and they’ve all been very fair in putting their resources on the table.” Common purpose was found in the excitement generated by a bold, all-electric vision. Because while these cars are battery powered, they’re far from toy racers, thanks to around 133kw/180bhp in ‘standard’ mode and up to 200kW/270bhp via a push-to-pass system that’s also available throughout practice and qualifying. That should equate to roughly Formula 3 performance levels, even if, with control tyres and a Formula E demonstrate its commitment to sustainability, and in standardised aero package, they’re a degree less extreme promoter Agag doing so help attract a younger, eco-savvy fan base. than their out-and-out circuit racing cousins. That’s (above) has spent “People love motor sport as it’s such a great way all part of the Formula E plan, however: the aim, after time in GP2 and to associate your brand with values like technology, year one, is to have competition through powertrain the European parliament competition, speed, efficiency and so on. But at the same and battery development, rather than extreme chassis time to bring motor sport and sustainability together rivalry. The series is not, though, intended to be a we thought was an absolute winner. And this is why we one-make formula, and by year two it’s hoped other really believed in the project from the start.” chassis manufacturers will join Dallara. And if the series Overcoming scepticism was a challenge, he admits, encourages intense rivalry between motor makers, keen with some dismissing an all-electric race series as a to showcase the excellence of their battery and electrical “completely crazy” money-loser. But “slowly, slowly tech – in line with their road car developments – then, people have been getting it”. says Agag, Formula E will truly have delivered on its They’re also, Agag seeks to reassure, attracted by the vision. “It’s an open championship,” he confirms, “so as “THESE CARS ARE FAR unique Formula E business model. Rather than rely on long as the car meets the FIA regulations, it can race. The FROM TOY RACERS, traditional arrangements of charging high hosting fees technical regulations are drafted in such a way that they to a race circuit or promoter, who will then recoup their discourage chassis competition. Instead, they encourage WITH UP TO 270BHP VIA outlay through ticket sales and sponsorship, Formula E battery and electrical competition.” asks a host city for no cash, but lots of help with a prime McLaren, Williams and Renault have a head start, A PUSH-TO-PASS SYSTEM street circuit location and infrastructural support. having drawn directly from their F1 and road car THAT’S AVAILABLE “This was very important for us,” says fast-talking programmes to supply advanced yet proven systems Agag. “Our philosophy was that if we ask for hosting (such as an electric motor taken directly from the THROUGHOUT PRACTICE fees we probably would not get the best locations nor McLaren P1 road car). Should Formula E prove as AND QUALIFYING.” the best cities. But we wanted to be in symbolic cities, popular as hoped, how long before other major motor

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Below: The manufacturers are queuing up to plug in? aerodynamic development,” he says. “As a brand SAFE AND battery, which we’ve always tried to make a difference, whether that’s NO SOUND produces 180bhp POSITIVE ENERGY: THE TEAMS through the Virgin GlobalFlyer or the Virgin Galactic in standard mode, With its mantra of clean efficiency and an emotional programme, and Formula E is exciting in this respect. is from Williams There has never before been a Advanced pull to the gamer generation, Formula E has all the It’s brand-new technology for the man in the street.” Engineering. Far credentials of a sports championship in tune with These facets are likely to be just as attractive to fully-electric championship on right: Formula E its zeitgeist. A playground for bloated corporations, other future entrants, particularly as in a cost-capped technical director demanding hundreds of millions of dollars per season formula it should be relatively straightforward to the scale of Formula E. With quiet Carlos Nunes. to compete at the top level, it is not. Rather, it is cleaner, earn enough through sponsorship to offset the cost of cars, powerful batteries and all- lighter on its feet, younger and – if the view of Virgin’s participation. “It should cost less than income,” says Alex Tai is anything to go by – a lot more attractive to Tai, “which is where any business should be. And if street circuits, the championship would-be entrants. that happens, you don’t have to charge huge amounts brings with it a unique set of safety Tai, team principal and CEO of Virgin Racing, to sponsors, nor do you have to charge drivers to race. which will enter the first Formula E season, has an acute So you end up with an altogether healthier market.” considerations. Carlos Nunes, perspective on the appeals of the new series, having been The low start-up costs associated with what will be, involved with Virgin’s entry in 2010 as title sponsor to the in year one, a single-make series are further appealing, Formula E technical director, has F1 team now known as Marussia: “Budgets are capped as are Formula E’s underlying green principles – likely answers for them all at £3m in Formula E, which is less than five per cent of in time to prove attractive to a new generation of an F1 entry. £80m is only just enough to keep you racing sponsors. in Formula One, so it becomes a competition of who can “Electric street racing is the future,” Tai affirms. spend the most, not who’s the smartest.” “It’s a sporting spectacle that celebrates environmental The thriftier approach of Formula E is, Tai reckons, concerns and we want to be part of it.” highly appealing to a number of brands that have been put off from involvement with the premier category of LIVEWIRES: THE DRIVERS motor sport, in part because of excessive costs, but also With a vast range of competing race series in the How do safety considerations differ in Everyone involved in the series must first CALENDAR on account of a perception that it’s out of touch with echelons beneath motor sport’s premier categories, how Formula E compared to other single-seater gain a special licence – how does that work? ordinary consumers. can a new championship possibly find a niche in which championships? All drivers taking part must earn an Round One “When we came to F1, we tried to make a difference to thrive? Where can it sit in the bustle of Formula 3, Given Formula E is a new, fully-electric eLicence. This means they have completed Beijing, China by being more reliant on CFD technology rather than GP2, Renault World Series and the US racing scene? championship, the safety considerations a safety briefing on the car and what to do 13 September 2014 having the traditional reliance on wind tunnels for It can find breathing space, its advocates are on the whole much higher. This is not in the event of an issue. Team personnel Round Two because the series is potentially more also undergo a similar briefing – lasting Putrajaya, Malaysia dangerous but because it has never been around seven hours – as will marshals and 18 October 2014 done before. Therefore safety – not just in medical teams before any test or race. The the cars but for the drivers, teams and track FIA medical delegate plays a crucial role in Round Three personnel – is one of the most important developing the safety procedures. Punta Del Este, Uruguay aspects of the series and something Who homologates the circuits? 13 December 2014 Formula E and the FIA take very seriously. This rests with the FIA together with the Round Four What extra precautions are you taking for race director, local ASN and clerk of Buenos Aires, Argentina the batteries? the course. All the Formula E circuits go 10 January 2015 The car’s battery is no more dangerous than through an initial homologation procedure a regular combustion engine. Nevertheless, to check they comply with the FIA’s strict Round Five Formula E and the FIA have taken steps to requirements – in Formula E’s case that’s TBC ensure it is protected upon impact – be it at FIA Grade III. The tracks can only be fully TBC the track or in transit. The battery is made homologated the day before the race after up of many individual lithium-ion batteries, various inspections have been carried out. Round Six each separately packed in a special Has the car passed all the crash tests now? Miami, USA protective casing so that should one short, It has been crash tested to the latest FIA 14 March 2015 the rest remain protected. The battery has safety standards – the same used in F1. This Round Seven also undergone rigorous crash testing to features tests such as carbon fibre front and Los Angeles, USA know how it responds upon impact, as well rear impact structures; front, side, rear and 4 April 2015 as completing tests – to UN standards – for steering column impact tests together with its safety during transportation. front and rear roll-hoop impact structure Round Eight Are you worried about fire hazards? and monocoque push tests. I’m pleased to Monte Carlo, Monaco Motor sport by its nature can be dangerous. say the car has successfully passed them. 9 May 2015 All championships are concerned by fire Are you working in conjunction with the Round Nine hazards and do everything they can to FIA on safety? Berlin, Germany reduce the risk. Formula E is no exception. Yes, of course. Safety remains of paramount 30 May 2015 The risk of fire remains very low, but even importance to both Formula E and the FIA, so any personnel involved in the car will and we are working closely with all those Round Ten be given specialist training on what to do involved. We’re also promoting the FIA’s London, United Kingdom should the worst happen. Action for Road Safety programme. 27 June 2015

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REAR WING A sleeker and lower design than many conventional single- argue, by appealing solely on its own merits and not seaters, the rear wing doesn’t presenting itself explicitly as a stepping stone to a need to produce as much bigger championship. And already that pitch has proven downforce as other formula attractive to a number of pilots who form the Formula cars due to the unique weight E Drivers Club – thereby expressing their interest in the distribution of the Formula E. first season without yet inking the dotted line. Sportscar driver and ex-F1 racer Karun Chandhok is one such, and With the transmission, motor he has been encouraged by what he has learned so far. and battery pack further back “Alejandro was smart because he realised that having STEERING WHEEL on the car, less work is required a reasonable level of drivers associated with the series from the wing to increase the Featuring an LCD display on would help its credibility from the start,” says Chandhok, contact patch for the rear tyres. which drivers can monitor who has been confirmed as a Formula E driver for Mahindra Racing. “We’re also going to have input into numerous systems including the car’s development, so that when it starts racing it brake regeneration and battery hasn’t been developed around a single test driver.” supply levels, the steering The scheduling of the Formula E calendar makes it wheel also has a paddle-shift, attractive to would-be racers, too, with around half the five-speed gearbox. Numerous events happening in the motor sport ‘off-season’ from buttons allow the driver to late autumn to March, thus making it possible to attract cycle through menu screens, high-calibre drivers from, say, the WEC. engage the pitlane speed “The cars will be challenging, too,” reckons limiter, communicate on the Chandhok. “Not necessarily in terms of their outright car-to-pit radio and deliver a speed, as a lot of drivers will have experienced more power boost using the push-to- powerful machinery. But it will be a different style of pass system. driving and racing: how to manage the torque and the energy delivery; how to use the energy… If you look at the way all other motor sport is going, it’s hybrid or battery operated and that makes it an interesting thing to do. It will be completely new and different and that’s attractive in itself.”

CIRCUIT BOARD: HOST CITIES As a country that’s home to 1.3 billion people, and as the world’s second-largest economy, China doesn’t really do small. So, as a statement of intent, naming Beijing as host city for the first Formula E race, on September 20, is nothing if not ambitious. “The circuit will be at the Olympic Park,” notes promoter Steven Lu, “so no, space will not be an issue – it’s huge!” The race will need more than just Sino-scale to impress, however: a credible, entertaining circuit is vital POWERTRAIN to generate enthusiasm with local race fans and abroad, via the internet and TV. And on this score, Lu, former The electric powertrain, head of the Team China A1GP squad, has few concerns. along with all other electronic “There are some new-circuit teething troubles,” he systems in the car, is provided admits, “but we have done street racing in Beijing twice by McLaren Electronics before, with A1GP and Superleague, so we have some Systems. Capable of launching good experience. And to some extent we have a ready- SUSPENSION the Spark-Renault car from made audience for our race, as up to half a million people BATTERY 0-100km/h in less than three come through the Olympic Park every day anyway, so we A similar construction to F1 Williams Advanced Engineering seconds, and with a top speed can provide perfect extra entertainment for them.” cars, the Spark-Renault racer has supplied the battery and of 225km/h, a regenerative All well and good, but what’s in it for Beijing – a features a pushrod-operated mega-city that hardly needs promotion? Well, that’s battery management systems braking system using the suspension system with double not strictly true, argues Lu, who reveals that Formula E that are able to provide 200kw motor will provide engine carbon fibre wishbones. Drivers will help fill a nagging post-Olympic void. “One of the of energy or the equivalent braking and battery charging and teams will be able to concerns after the Games was that there was no sport of 270bhp. A single charge simultaneously. alter ride height, camber and left to fill the vacuum, but this helps a lot and the city and the 440lb battery packs toe through adjustable twin government has been very supportive,” he says. “They will offer 30 minutes of dampers made by Koni, anti-roll understand that it’s the perfect concept for bringing performance before drivers will bars and torsion bar suspension racing and environmental concerns together, and that have to switch to another car to can really help with a message on pollution.” on the front with spring complete the hour-long races. Motor sport with a social conscience? There’s an suspension at the rear. engine for change…

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AN ELECTRIC LINE-UP “ ELECTRIC STREET From an Oscar-nominated actor, to a renowned entrepreneur and men RACING IS THE already famous for their motor sport achievements, the Formula E FUTURE. IT’S A Championship is not short of impressive and serious backers SPORTING SPECTACLE THAT CELEBRATES ENVIRONMENTAL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT JHKBB?=F SUPER AGURI Key People: Michael Andretti (CEO), Key people: Jarno Trulli Key people: Aguri Suzuki CONCERNS AND WE JF Thormann (COO), Kyle Moyer (Co-Founder and Driver), Lucio (executive chairman), Mark WANT TO BE PART OF IT.” (director of racing operations), Cavuto (Team Principal), Francesco Preston (team principal), Peter Marco Andretti (IndyCar driver) Guarnieri (Chairman and CEO) McCool (technical director), Ferry ALEX TAI, VIRGIN RACING Pedigree: With four IndyCar series Pedigree: Taking over the entry of Spijkerman (commercial director) titles to go along with two Indy Drayson Racing, ex-Formula One Pedigree: Best known for a foray 500 victories, Andretti Autosport is driver Jarno Trulli leads a brand new into F1 in the mid-2000s, the Super a true powerhouse of US racing. team into the series. The outfit will Aguri team has been reformed Drivers: Franck Montagny. continue to work with Drayson, to compete in the Formula E which will remain as the squad's Championship. Based in Tokyo, AUDI SPORT ABT principal technology partner and Japan, the team is run by former F1 Key people: Hans-Jürgen Abt carry on with the development of driver Aguri Suzuki. (team principal) wireless charging technology. Pedigree: DTM specialists with VENTURI GRAND PRIX five championship titles, Audi’s E.DAMS Key people: Leonardo DiCaprio involvement in Formula E marks a Key people: Alain Prost (founder), Gildo Pallanca Pastor return to open-wheel racing for the (co-founder), Jean-Paul Driot (founder), Bert Hedaya (founder), first time since the 1990s. (co-founder) Francesco Costa (founder) Drivers: Daniel Abt, Lucas Di Grassi. Pedigree: A joint venture between Pedigree: Formed by Oscar- the ever-successful DAMS team nominated actor Leonardo CHINA RACING and four-time Formula One world DiCaprio and Monegasque Key people: Steven Lu (CEO), champion Alain Prost, e.dams company Venturi Automobiles, Yu Liu (chairman) combines two of the most the team has garnered major Pedigree: First appearing in the recognisable names in French media attention for the Formula short-lived A1GP series, China motor sport. E series. With experience in Racing has gone on to compete producing high-performance in various other categories such MAHINDRA RACING electric vehicles, however, Venturi as Superleague Formula, and has Key people: Anand Mahindra holds the World Land Speed experience organising street races (chairman and MD of Mahindra Record for an electric vehicle. across China. Group), SP Shukla (chairman, This is no PR stunt. Mahindra Racing), Dilbagh Gill DRAGON RACING (team principal, Mahindra Racing) VIRGIN RACING Key people: Jay Penske (owner Pedigree: A multinational Key people: Richard Branson and president), Paul Woolnough conglomerate from India, (founder and chairman of Virgin (vice-president) Mahindra Group has already Group), Alex Tai (team principal) Pedigree: Owner Jay Penske, son established itself as a leading Pedigree: A business associated of legendary US motor sport figure producer of electric vehicles. with aviation, technology and even Roger, formed Dragon Racing to Through Mahindra Racing, Formula space travel, Virgin re-enters motor compete in the IndyCar series. E represents its second step into sport following an unsuccessful Following its acceptance into motor sport following a successful attempt at Formula One in 2010 Formula E, Dragon Racing has venture into motorcycle racing. and 2011. scaled back its other involvements Drivers: Karun Chandhok and Drivers: Jaime Alguersuari and to focus on the all-electric series. Bruno Senna. Sam Bird.

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School bus safety has been a major issue in Uruguay, where the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez has campaigned hard for improvements.

Road safety SCHOOLING SOCIETY Nani Rodríguez has channelled the fighting spirit of her late racing-driver brother in taking on the government of Uruguay to improve school bus safety across the country

TEXT: PABLO FERNANDEZ

School transport in Uruguay, South America, was for motorbikes by 300 per cent, according to the National decades characterised by a lack of safety regulations. Road Safety Agency (UNASEV). To make matters worse, The only thing that prevented slaughter was the small most drivers ignore traffic regulations and there is a lack number of cars on the road. But, as in other Latin of enforcement by the authorities. Accident rates have American countries, the number of vehicles on the streets increased accordingly. multiplied and so did accidents and deaths. “We analysed the situation,” says Nani Rodríguez, Fortunately for school children across the country, president of the foundation named after her brother the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez (FGR), which works Gonzalo, a racer who died in an accident during practice closely with the FIA Foundation on improving road safety for the 1999 CART race at Laguna Seca Raceway in in the region, identified the problem early on. It designed California. “Child seats were hardly used and those a targeted campaign to improve child road safety, and in the market complied with no regulations. Children after a long journey – that included confronting the would travel unrestrained, and drivers of school government and the school transport union – managed to transport didn’t have companions. We realised it was change the way Uruguayan children travel. fundamental to reverse that situation.” In the 1980s, children would travel in school vans To achieve that, the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez without any safety devices. The usual vehicle was a VW launched its EDU-CAR Programme promoting the Kombi van, fitted with long benches on which they would mandatory use of child restraint systems. Also, after sit without any seatbelts or child seats, happily bouncing evaluating the van fleet used in school transport, the around at every turn or sudden stop. foundation concluded new vehicles were needed, since When there were fewer cars on the roads this went the majority of them were not suitable for the safe unremarked, but in the last 10 years the number of transport of children and could not be modified.

PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTOGRAPHY: cars has increased by 60 per cent and the number of “The investment required was massive, and the

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confrontation started – telephone calls asking us to leave everything as it was. And the government would give no “ CHILD SEATS answers,” explains Rodríguez. “But our message was very clear, and thanks to support from our international WERE HARDLY partners – the FIA Foundation and the World Bank – we kept working without giving in to the pressure.” USED AND In the middle of the debate, there was an accident that forced the government to react. “In April 2010, CHILDREN 11-year-old Julieta Estefan died. She was travelling unrestrained and the accident was shocking. The media WOULD TRAVEL reacted strongly to our recommendations, and the government and the school transport union felt great UNRESTRAINED.” pressure from society. The government reacted with unprecedented speed, and in two months there was a NANI RODRÍGUEZ regulation for school transport – currently a reference for many countries.” The main points of these new regulations, which have IN THE NAME OF been in force since July 2010, were: all school transport vehicles should have three-point, height-adjustable THE BROTHER seatbelts; all children under three years old should travel in a Child Restraint System, and there should be a Youth work honours the memory of passenger in charge of children; the number of children per trip is also limited. promising racer Gonzalo Rodríguez This was a radical change that improved safety conditions. No deaths or serious injuries in school Gonzalo Rodríguez was a alerted to other problems transport have been recorded since the implementation young Uruguayan racing facing the young – including of the new act, explains Pablo Inthamousu, UNASEV’s driver with a bright future. a high casualty rate in traffic secretary general. In 1999 he was flying high accidents. “The evaluation in terms of children’s safety in second place in the FIA Meanwhile, several of is very positive, the figures are very clear,” he says. F3000 Championship Gonzalo’s former track rivals “The new regulation was tested in practice: we had a and was being courted by were by now established paradigmatic case, a van rolled over and none of the teams from the US Champ in Formula One and Nani nine children inside were injured. At UNASEV we have continued to visit the Car series. Two weeks later a very favourable opinion of the role played by social he was dead, killed in an paddock from time to time to organisations. They are strategic allies to us. In the case accident at Laguna Seca, in keep up with old friends. FIA of FGR, they work on child safety with independence Above: Seatbelts are “The new van – a Mercedes Benz 313 – responded. California, while practising race director Charlie Whiting and autonomy, being free to report what needs to be now mandatory on Seat anchorage was strong, windows didn’t break. for a Champ Car race. was one of those friends and improved. That’s of great help to us.” Uruguayan school Children were hanging from seatbelts, many of them He died before his she asked him whether he vans thanks to the Nani Rodríguez explains how they managed to get considered it an adventure. They didn’t realise the potential had been fulfilled, knew anybody who might efforts of the Uruguayan society to sit up and take notice of this issue. dimension of what could have happened.” but more than a decade be interested in developing Fundación Gonzalo “We got the issue on the social agenda even though Now, the foundation is sharing its experience with later his legacy lives on and a road safety programme Rodríguez and its its influence grows ever for Latin America. Whiting there is minimum enforcement,” she says. “We designed founder, Nani other Latin American countries. “Our asset is having Rodríguez (right). stronger. In the aftermath introduced her to the FIA communication strategies. We focused on the media gone through the learning process,” says Rodríguez. of his passing, Gonzalo’s Foundation. creating agreements with private companies to promote “Since each country has a different reality, tools should sister, Nani – his constant With the help of the the change from a different perspective. For example, a be adapted. We are working closely with governments travelling companion in foundation, Rodríguez drew health insurance company gives a Child Restraint System and NGOs from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Europe (above) – established up the EDU-CAR proposal, a to its pregnant members if they attempt a safety talk with Mexico and Paraguay. We are training technicians, the Fundación Gonzalo road safety plan for children our technicians.” teaching them what are the best child restraint systems Rodríguez to perpetuate in Latin America and the Javier Echenique is the owner of a school van that and assisting in the drafting of new regulations.” her brother’s memory. Her Caribbean. Gonzalo’s legacy was involved in a major accident in May 2013. “I was one To achieve this, the foundation depends on several initial objective was to help is the number of children’s of the sceptics, I thought the investment required for the international organisations. “In order to generate such a underprivileged children lives that have been saved new regulation was excessive, that there was no reason cultural change in my country and the region, it’s crucial in her homeland by using in Uruguay and across for so much safety,” he says. “Today, I can’t be grateful to have the technical, economical and institutional sport as a social tool to keep the Americas due to this enough. Thank God we implemented those changes, support of organisations such as the FIA Foundation or them off the streets and proposal and the indomitable thank God we invested. Had it not been for that, we the World Bank,” adds Rodríguez. “Generating a change teach them the importance will of his sister to do good would have ended up having some fatal victims among takes 10 years. Without their support we wouldn’t have of respect. But she was soon in his name. the children, no doubt about it. made any progress at all.”

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Sebastián Merchán puts the Italian championship Formula 4 car through its paces at Adria Raceway in testing last month.

Junior Racing FORMULA FUTURE

For junior drivers, the leap from karting to single-seater racing can be a costly, make-or-break moment. The FIA, however, is seeking to smooth the path to future glory with a new concept, Formula 4 , and the first championship is already proving to be a major success in Italy

TEXT: JUSTIN HYNES

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On the face of it, climbing the racing ladder seems a something like Formula Renault 2.0 litre. Maybe as much straightforward process: apprenticeship in junior karting as 2.5 or three times cheaper.” leads to switch to single-seater cars, the power of the series The first country to embrace the new formula is Italy, contested increases as results and titles are accrued, and where under the auspices of the Commissione Sportiva top-level racing across assorted saloon, sports and open- Automobilistica Italiana (CSAI), in partnership with wheel championships beckons. promoter WSK, the first F4 championship got underway The reality, however, is whole lot more daunting. at the Adria Circuit on June 8, following a test session at Having successfully navigated the world of junior the same track in late May. Spread across seven rounds at karting, young racers, typically aged 15 or 16, are faced circuits such as Imola, Mugello, Vallelunga and Monza, with a frighteningly complex junior formula ecosystem the championship will feature upwards of 20 young populated by a bewildering array of competing series, racers driving for 10 teams using a chassis by Tatuus, an all with wildly differing costs and, by virtue of budget, engine from Abarth and tyres provided by Pirelli. make-or-break levels of competitiveness. Choosing the According to Luca De Donno, president of right series to race in at the right point in a series’ life cycle championship promoter WSK, the series is off to a good can be a pivotal moment in a young racer’s career. start. “My hope is that this is a new era for junior racing, There is, however, a growing alternative. Re-shaping and I hope that it will become a reference point for young the single-seater ecosystem has been the FIA’s goal drivers in the future,” he says. “The attraction obviously for the past five years, and under the auspices of the is the cost, plus you have the security of the FIA brand and federation’s Single-Seater Commission president, Gerhard Berger, the first steps were taken with the launch of a substantially remodelled FIA Formula 3 European Championship last year. “FORMULA 4 WILL That series aims to prepare racers in their late teens for the jump to levels one step or more below Formula OFFER A NEW One, but it was clear that the next area to focus on – and perhaps the most crucial – was to give those migrating BREEDING GROUND from karting a first, controlled, competitive and, most of all, affordable taste of single-seater racing. The result is FOR F1 DRIVERS.” the FIA’s nationally-focused Formula 4 championship, the first example of which kicked off in Italy this month. GERHARD BERGER “We saw with Formula 3 that the level of skill is quite demanding and, while there are always exceptions, for most young drivers it’s not really possible to go from an excellent car. We are putting the focus on reliability, karting to F3,” says Frédéric Bertrand, director of the professional organisation, good promotion and a strong FIA’s Single-Seater Department. “So we started to think link to the world of karting [WSK is the promoter of the of a concept of a car and of championships where we European and World Karting Championships].” can offer drivers a platform in which they can compare With the first series up and running, the next step Clockwise from top left: Italian F4 drivers themselves in similar, safe cars.” is to spread the formula globally. “Australia is at the make their way out The result is Formula 4. Unlike the FIA’s F3 project, tender stage and will launch in 2015,” says Bertrand. of the pits at Adria this more junior series is focused on single territories and “We will have a championship in Germany, where the Raceway; Andrea regions, with national sporting authorities organising Allgemeiner Deustcher Automobil-Club e.V. (ADAC) and Russo of DieGi a championship via a number of models including the Deutscher Motor Sport Bund (DMSB) are currently Motorsport; Dorian working with a promoter and with teams dealing directly running tenders for 2015. Japan is doing the same, most Boccolacci of Cram with manufacturers, working with a central owner of a likely with a chassis by Dome, and the UK will also have Motorsport and Leonardo Pulcini of stable of cars, or managing the series itself if funds or a a championship in 2015, with a Ford engine and a chassis Euronova Racing. sponsorship deal allow. from [French manufacturer] Mygale. The regulations have been designed in such a way “There are plans for a championship on the west that the specification of the cars is defined, using a coast of South America, again for 2015. This will be in carbon fibre monocoque chassis built to current F3 safety the FIA’s NACAM zone (North America and Central standards and an engine outputting 140-160bhp. America). We will also have a regional championship in “The configuration of the car is up to each the North European zone, and lastly, China is coming on manufacturer, as long as they maintain the power board, with a engine from local manufacturer Geely and in a range we accept and the cost is in a range we a Mygale chassis.” also determine,” explains Bertrand. “For the engine For Berger, it all adds up to a bright future for the F4 and chassis we have a registration process where the concept.“We are entering a very interesting phase for manufacturers have to fulfila lot of criteria, and once FIA Formula 4,” he says. “The Italian championship is those are fulfilled we provide a registration agreement an important first step. Weare conducting a long-term and submit them for homologation. Once that is done, project, the objective being to make FIA Formula 4 the they’re ready to race.” first, indisputable step for single-seater racing drivers, A target price of €40,000 per car has been set, by offering an optimum level of safety while at the same resulting in a likely seasonal budget of €100,000 for time keeping costs down. Formula 4 will re-launch drivers – a figure Bertrand says compares favourably with single-seater racing on the national level and thus offer others in the marketplace. “The cost is similar for the a new breeding ground for F1 drivers and for other

lowest-priced series or much cheaper if you compare it to top-level disciplines.” 4. PHOTO IMAGES, PRESS.NET PHOTOGRAPHY:

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The Ferrari 158 with which he won the 1964 world championship sits proudly in a barn at Surtees’ home.

Legends THE ELDEST STATESMAN It’s 50 years since John Surtees became the only man to win world titles on two and four wheels – and he’s now F1’s oldest surviving champion. But the memories of his switch to grand prix racing remain as fresh as ever

TEXT: JUSTIN HYNES PHOTOGRAPHY: RICK PUSHINSKY

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Surtees came to F1 in 1964 with a dinner, a Sportsman of the Year dinner or something a world championship-winning like that. And out the blue Reg Parnell came up and said, pedigree from motorcycle ‘come to Goodwood, test the car’. As it happened I was racing, but with little knowledge free. That was the Aston Martin DBR1. of his new track rivals. “It was all by accident really,” he says. “After that I went to see John Cooper because I’d decided that when I wasn’t motorcycle racing, I would do extra racing in a car. We felt that our commitments to [motorcycle ‘‘ manufacturer] Agusta had to come first, obviously, so we said we’d buy a car. So I went to buy a Formula Two Cooper Climax but John Cooper had arranged for Ken Tyrrell to be there and he came up to me and said, ‘I’ve entered you in Goodwood. I’ve spoken to the RAC, they’ll watch you in practice etc, and if you’re any good they’ll issue you with a licence.’ That was it really.” So in March 1960, Surtees journeyed to the south coast of the UK and competed in a Formula Junior race at the circuit, finishing second to another soon-to-be star, Jim Clark. It was the turning point. “I thought I’d do a few car races privately. Ken Tyrrell said ‘do it’, which was encouraging. It all changed after I went to Oulton Park and did a Formula Two race. My e can take some photographs in the barn if you like,” says father was number one mechanic, I was number two John Surtees as he tramps out of the kitchen of the Kentish mechanic, and we were second behind the works Lotus manor house he’s called home for more than 40 years. of Innes Ireland and in front of the other works cars. W“There’s some cars up there you might want to see.” Then we went to Aintree for the international event with At 80 years old, Formula One’s oldest living all the Porsches, which were dominating 1.5-litre F2. I was champion (following the death of Sir Jack Brabham last the first British car in front of the other works teams and month) still moves with surprising pace. He opens the set the fastest lap. Colin Chapman came up and said, ‘Try front door and bounds up the hill towards the large barn a Formula One’. So I said, ‘I’m a motorcycle racer’, but he that overlooks the house. kept at it: ‘try a Formula One, come to Silverstone, we’re The doors are already open, and in the gloom the going to Silverstone’. So I went and he said he wanted familiar shape of a rare and beautiful BMW 507 becomes me in his team. I kept saying I was a motorcycle racer, so clear. To its left is an equally desirable crimson Gullwing the compromise was him saying, ‘when you’re not racing Mercedes 300SL. Between them, though, is the rarest motorcycles, race for me’. So we shook hands and that of them all, the Ferrari 158 Surtees drove to the 1964 was it, I was a Lotus F1 grand prix driver.” Formula One World Championship. Surtees made his F1 world championship debut at “Initially it wasn’t great,” Surtees says of the car and Monaco in May 1960. However, for a multiple world the year. “There were problems in the early part of the champion motorcyclist it wasn’t the daunting prospect it season. At Spa, I think we holed a piston because the might have been. injection at the top end hadn’t been right. In Austria, I “It was incredible but at the same time the whole had the race potentially in my hands and a joint on the environment there, well, you’ve got to remember that we suspension broke. Mind you, it was a very rough circuit, had some prestigious motorcycle races and I was pretty the airfield. So that lost me points…” used to the world championship scene on two wheels. The recollection is a snapshot of Surtees’ view of the “The world championship scene on four wheels past, taking in background, cause and effect, long-term was very different because I knew no one,” he adds. “I repercussions, but always it’s with a level of conviction had never been to a car race apart from when one was that gives you some clue as to how he approached his taking place in Spain, a GT race or something. I didn’t racing career – in black and white, shaped by what he know anybody. I went into it knowing Reg Parnell, Tony believed to be racing certainties. With a wry smile, Vandervell, and then Ken Tyrell and John Cooper, but however, he admits that occasionally his inability to no one else. So the big problem was I hadn’t served any see the shades of grey in between led to turbulent and form of apprenticeship to know the people off or on track. defining waypoints. From a racing driver’s point of view that’s where the The end of his first season of F1 competition is a biggest problems lie. As a driver or rider you need to have prime example. To get there, however, first the tale of instant assessments of how you deal with someone. Surtees’ involvement in car racing bears re-telling. “You haven’t got time to wait and think it out. I didn’t In 1959 Surtees wrapped up the 350cc and 500cc know the ones that had weaknesses, the ones you could world motorcycle championships (his fifth and sixth take liberties with, the ones you had to be careful with titles) for the second consecutive year. With little left to and the ones you could trust. That was a learning curve.” achieve on two wheels a change was in the offing. If Surtees was unsure of his rivals, they were equally “It all started in 1959,” says Surtees. “My ambitions mystified and in some cases resentful of him – an unproven, were still with motorcycles, but the idea of driving a car inexperienced rookie thrown in at the highest level. had been planted by Mike Hawthorn only days before “Generally, it was fine. They were top people actually he was killed [in January 1959]. We were all together at – Graham [Hill] and a few others had a bit of a soft spot

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for motorcycles. They were very receptive. There was Walking away from Lotus almost took the 26-year- the odd person, though. I fell foul of Jo Bonnier. A bit of old Surtees straight into the arms of Ferrari, but again he frustration came in the race in Belgium where I ran into turned away. “There was a call from Ferrari; I thought the back of him. Of course, some people who weren’t at about it but then I saw the list of things they were going the top of the grid didn’t like this new boy coming in and to do and I thought, ‘No, this isn’t right for a new boy; too racing at the top end. They didn’t like me being quick.” many drivers already’.” Resentment, from one quarter in particular, came to Whether it would have been Surtees, armed with a head at the end of the campaign, in an episode where the 156 ‘Sharknose’ Ferrari, who would have lifted the Surtees admits emotion perhaps got the better of him. 1961 title instead of the Scuderia’s American driver Phil “At the end of the season, after the Tasman Series, Hill is a moot point, but the decision to bide his time saw Colin [Chapman] said, ‘John, I’ve decided I want you Surtees spend two years if not in the F1 wilderness, then to lead the team’ and he told me I had my choice of certainly at its fringes, racing for privateer Reg Parnell. team-mate. I didn’t have to think too long. I respected And then, in an uncharacteristic move, Ferrari came [Lotus team-mate] Innes Ireland as a driver, but I wanted knocking again ahead of the 1963 season. Jimmy [Clark]. I’d fallen foul of Innes when I first came “I went to see Enzo in his office. There was the into the team because he resented this new boy being picture of his son, Dino, on the wall and [Ferrari’s given the same car as him and them competing with right-hand man] Franco Gozzi was there and [Ferrari’s him. Otherwise, though, we got on quite well, but Jimmy secretary] Valerio [Stradi], and they said it was a new [Clark] and me gelled a little better.” beginning. [Designer Carlo] Chiti had gone and they On the face of it, the suggestion appeared wanted to start afresh. They wanted me to come there, be straightforward, but Surtees hadn’t reckoned on the number one driver and do the testing of all the cars. reaction of Ireland, who insisted he had a contract with “I had no idea if it was right, how the organisation Chapman. Crucially, Ireland also had strong support was at that time. I didn’t have a clue!” he laughs. “The Clockwise from top left: On his debut from the motor sport media. only thing I thought was it was good Chiti had gone, and with Ferrari at Monaco in 1963, “Innes was quite a popular character,” says Surtees. that was reinforced when I worked with him a few years Surtees finished fourth and claimed “In those days you had a few national journalists who later when he asked me to drive an Alfa Romeo sports fastest lap in the 156; the Briton’s always went to grands prix and a few motoring journalists car at Sebring. We went out and did testing and made first-ever car race at Goodwood in as well. Some of the drivers were closely connected changes to the car to make it, in my mind, better (and it 1959, where he drove his Formula to some of these journalists and there’d been a bit of did better lap times) only to find when we got to the race Junior Cooper to finish second resentment of this new boy. So I’d come in for some stick. he’d changed it back because they were his settings. behind Jim Clark; celebrating his title win in ‘64, with Prince Phillip and “I had this call from Paris I think and Innes said, “So it was a new team at Ferrari. [Designer] Mauro Stirling Moss looking on; Surtees’ ‘You’ve stolen my drive. I’ve got a contract, which is firm, Foghieri was there, Franco Rocchi was sort of the chief maiden F1 win the previous season and you’ve done this and that.’ I told him, ‘Look, just project engineer, responsible largely for the engines. came at the daunting Nürburgring. come back and see Colin and everything will be fine.’ We There was some depth there.” went back and Colin told him, ‘It’s all set Innes, you’re It wasn’t enough, however. Ferrari’s strategy of fixed up to drive the same cars with BRP [British Racing running sports car and F1 programmes stretched Partnership]’, but Innes wasn’t having it.” resources to breaking point, and while the team’s 250P The wrangling and adverse publicity were too much sports car was a huge success, the tweaked 156 with for Surtees, who walked away from the deal. which the team raced in F1 struggled. At the season- “I loved my racing, the coming together between opener in Monaco, Surtees raced to fourth and claimed man and machine,” he says. “I liked Colin very much but fastest lap, but at the next round in Spa he failed to finish. I’d come in for some stick and it was taking away that The Dutch Grand Prix yielded a podium finish but again pleasure. I thought, ‘I’m just starting a new career and momentum ebbed, and in France the fuel pump failed. I can’t stand it, I don’t want this’, so I walked away. Did “The V6 in that car was a good little engine,” says I regret it? Later, yes, I did. I made one or two decisions Surtees. “Probably to get its maximum potential you emotionally which… Maybe I should have been a bit more needed to rev it a little higher but that wasn’t safe. It had like Ayrton Senna in regard to which car I sat in.” direct injection but it was difficult to meter it. However, before the German Grand Prix we did some development work, largely because Le Mans was over. They finally gave their attention to F1.” Surtees took the improved car out on the daunting Nürburgring circuit and despite its deficiencies qualified “MAYBE I SHOULD a close second to Jim Clark’s Lotus 25. When Clark’s car developed a misfire Surtees saw his chance. He seized the HAVE BEEN MORE lead and gradually powered away to score his maiden F1 win and Ferrari’s first since 1961. “It was very satisfying. When you’re in Italian teams, LIKE SENNA IN there’s the emotion as well. They hadn’t won since 1961, so it was a big moment for them,” he says. “I don’t REGARD TO WHICH remember if there was a big celebration, though. That kind of thing usually happened in the pits. And then we CAR I SAT IN.” would go over to the Sport Hotel, nowhere fancy, that sort of thing. We’d all eat together but apart from that no JOHN SURTEES special celebration really.”

66 AUTO / FOCUS AUTO/ FOCUS

For 1964, Surtees was given a new machine – the V8-powered, 1.5-litre 158. Once again, though, there “FERRARI COULD were teething problems, with the sports car programme impacting on the F1 results. From the season’s first four HAVE WON TWO races Surtees managed just one finish – a second place at Zandvoort. Instead, it was Clark, Hill and American Dan OR THREE TITLES, Gurney who took the spoils, with Clark taking three wins from the first five events. “The season was typically topsy-turvy Ferrari,” BUT WE CHUCKED says Surtees. “[Enzo] Ferrari had some major things on his mind. There had been a potential takeover by Ford THEM AWAY...” and he turned it down. It didn’t go down well and Ford basically said, ‘If we can’t buy you, we’ll beat you’. They JOHN SURTEES started throwing money at building sports cars and the Le Mans cars [the legendary GT40]. Then there was a FIAT deal happening on the side. “At the time I didn’t really appreciate how difficult it must have been,” he adds. “When someone has started Surtees, in third, still needed to finish second. Frantic something and it’s their company… Well, it wasn’t until I instructions from the pitwall to Bandini saw the Italian let had my own team that I understood some of the stresses Surtees past to finish behind the winner Gurney and as the Old Man must have been under.” champion – the first and still the only man to do so on two Development of the new 158 only began in earnest and four wheels. after Le Mans but by the time the championship reached Half a century later, Surtees is matter-of-fact about the final round, in Mexico, Surtees was embroiled in the achievement. “It was very satisfying,” he says. “It a three-way fight for the title. Hill led with 39 points, would have been nice to win the race, but if anybody was while Surtees was on 34, two clear of Clark. With only a going to beat me I was happy for Dan, because I rated competitor’s six best results counting towards the title him very highly. He had his ups and downs, in life as well the mathematics of how each could win were complex, as racing, but he was a damn good driver.” but Surtees went into the race knowing that he could only Surtees would go on to more wins, but just one would be sure of the title if he finished second or better. He also come with the team he’d taken to victory in one of the went to Mexico City knowing that the 158’s V8 engine sport’s tightest championship finales. Within two years might suffer in the high-altitude surrounds of the circuit, his relationship with Ferrari had soured: a life-threatening the Magdalena Mixhuca, later to be rechristened the accident midway through 1965 led to a long lay-off and Hermanos Rodríguez. when he returned to the fray, political machinations “I was really worried about it,” he says. “We’d had within the Italian squad saw Surtees quit in dramatic style trouble getting the metering of the fuel injection right following a controversial 1966 Le Mans outing. at a number of races. We thought the 12-cylinder engine He went on to give Honda the final victory of its brief would be better. But there was a problem with oil surge, 1960s F1 tenure before eventually founding his own particularly on the long, banked corner – the Peraltada. intermittently successful team, but never again would he So there was a big question about whether or not the challenge for a title. thing would actually last, even though it was quicker. We “For a long time I felt real anger about the way it said, ‘it’s got to be the eight’.” ended with Ferrari,” he says. “Not with the Old Man Fourth on the grid Surtees, hampered by a misfire, because I thought he had been heavily manipulated, but dropped back to a distant 13th after the start and was with the situation and about what we’d lost, because we forced to watch as pole winner Clark powered away into had potentially two or three titles there. We had them, a solid lead. Hill, meanwhile, recovered from an early but we chucked them away… Chucked them away.” problem to battle Surtees’ team-mate Lorenzo Bandini In the barn where his title-winning 158 rests, and (using the 12-cylinder engine) for third. surrounded by his own team’s racing machinery, Surtees The race began to come back to Surtees on lap 31 can still smile when asked to sum up his grand prix years when Bandini collided with Hill, damaging the BRM’s and what he learned about himself through them. exhaust. Down on power, Hill faded from the picture. “I think the biggest thing is the competitive spirit “I saw the whole thing with Lorenzo and Graham; I which exists both on and off the track with me,” he think I was the reason it happened,” says Surtees. “My says. “At times it perhaps caused me to make one or engine hadn’t fired on eight cylinders for the first couple two decisions that were not as calculated as they should of laps or so because we’d changed the engine and put have been, but I’ve been lucky to work with and compete a different mixture on it to try and make it work better, against some really fantastic people. but it was too lean. However, when it got hot it started to “I’ve said this many times but it all goes back to the work. I was able to catch up and I think Graham saw me very first race I won. The day when, having built up the in his mirrors and reacted.” Vincent motorcycle – the Grey Flash – I went to that circuit Clark, in the lead, was still in control of the title, in Aberdare in Wales and struck up a communication however – until the penultimate lap. with the bike and we became as one. It talked to me “I’d had a lot of bad luck in the previous races but and I talked to it and from then on I was on a winning this time it was Jimmy’s turn. He had a problem with his streak, purely because of that relationship with a piece of engine and he dropped back.” machinery that I’d created. Now that’s important.”

69 AUTO / FOCUS AUTO/ FOCUS TIME IN MOTION

Watchmaker Richard Mille has brought his love for the technology of motor sport into the high-end pieces he creates – which are strong enough to last a lifetime

TEXT: JUSTIN HYNES

he marriage between timekeeping and became director of the company’s watch brands. In the motor sport is almost as old as the sport 1990s he joined jewellery firm Mauboussin as CEO of itself. Tales of the earliest days of race the watchmaking division and head of jewellery. All the timing tell of rudimentary tripwires strung while, though, he was harbouring visions of launching T across the brickwork of the Indianapolis his own uncompromising brand of cost-no-object Motor Speedway at the inaugural 500 race timepieces, free from any restrictions on R&D time. in 1911 and linked to rolls of thin paper, springs, hammers “I’d always said that one day I would launch my and typewriter ribbon. brand. Not for reasons of ego, but to do what marketing Fifty years later timing was the preserve of drivers’ today doesn’t allow us to do,” he explains. “Motor wives and girlfriends, who perched on pitwalls around sport is a prime example of this. Formula One, sport the world, gripping an analogue stopwatch in either hand prototypes, everything linked to racing cars is appealing in order to clock the split times of their partners as they to me because it’s the same process by which you have hurtled across the start/finish line. thousands of hours of development, studies, tests and at The dovetailing goes beyond the need from the end of the process you release only a few pieces. separating the fastest from the also-rans, however. The “I loved this idea; in France we say the mountain is atomic-level obsession with precision, the exploration of giving birth to a mouse. I am not in the volume business. exotic materials and, even in these days of laser-guided It’s not an industry, but you need a lot of technical and machining and 3D printing, the exquisite handcrafting financial means to develop your products, and at the end required to edge towards perfection have made motor you will only release a few pieces. sport a fertile area for watchmakers to show their skills. “It’s a non-marketing approach,” he adds. “It’s based So, given the plethora of brands vying for attention on efficiency and technical results. It’s a sharp approach in a vast array of championships at every level of global and not like the usual approach of today. In the luxury motor sport, what is there left to gain for a watch brand business, everybody starts from a final public price from racing, particularly a relatively young brand acceptance point and from that they develop the product. occupying an extraordinarily rarefied market segment? I said no, my development has no limit. The only limit is a For Richard Mille, who launched his ultra-high-end technical one, and you can push technical domains.” watchmaking company in 2001, the answer is simple. The synergies between his methodology and that of “Because racing is in my blood,” he says. “I have racing constructors made involvement in motor racing a a collection of race cars. Since I was young, I dreamt natural fit for Mille as hesought to broaden the visibility Richard Mille about racing cars. For me, it’s natural. Also, I have the of his fledgling brand. However, his first choice for wanted his same approach you have with racing cars. Our legitimacy partnership, the bi-annual Le Mans Classic race, seems eponymous watch comes from extreme techniques without compromise.” at odds with the future-focused techniques and materials company to reflect the same values of Mille’s road to watches as boundary-free feats he was employing in his watches. technical excellence of supreme engineering began with a post as export Mille admits that from a marketing viewpoint the and exclusivity seen manager at watchmaking firm, Finhor, in the mid-1970s. choice was strange, but that his passion for classic racing in motor sport. When it was taken over by Matra in the early ’80s he cars prompted him to start sponsoring the event in 2002.

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“It’s a total paradox,” he laughs. “But I found no problem with this because it comes from passion. Le Mille has sponsored the “MY CLIENTS ARE Mans was always a dream for me. When I was young, I bi-annual Le Mans was always watching it on TV. When my friend Patrick Classic race since 2002. MAD ABOUT Peter [of event promoter Peter Auto] proposed that I be Left: He has a vast car the main sponsor of the Le Mans Classic, I was totally collection and races enthusiastic because of the pure pleasure it gave me. a Lola T70 Mk3. CARS, SO FOR “It was also about a time where the cars were art Below: Mille has F1 ties pieces. They came from engineers, but many of them with Lotus and Romain THEM TO COME Grosjean, and a long- were artists. There are nearly 500 entries with every standing relationship TO LE MANS IS conceivable style, shape, colour and sound of racing with Felipe Massa, right. machinery – it’s a legend. For me, it’s also a fantastic opportunity to invite clients. A lot of my clients are mad FANTASTIC.” about cars, so for them to come to Le Mans is fantastic. The bonus for Mille is that he’s also a racer, with a RICHARD MILLE mind-boggling collection of classic sports cars. “I race with a Lola T70 but I have a few more, quite a few more,” he smiles. “A Lotus 33, a 49, a 72, a 63 four- Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, Massa was struck in the wheel drive, a McLaren M2, an M7, an M9 four-wheel head by a spring that detached from the car of compatriot drive, a Ferrari 312B, a V12 Matra. I have a lot of Porsches: Rubens Barrichello and suffered life-threatening injuries. 910, 907, 908, 917, a 935… You can see I love cars.” “We didn’t know if he would live or whether he would The passion for racing inevitably put Mille on the path drive an F1 car again. But he recovered and is enjoying a to F1, but his involvement in motor racing’s top single- resurgence now. These last seasons were not very happy seater category was again atypical, borne out of a desire for Felipe, but you cannot imagine the support he’s to fully test his watches in an extreme environment. had from my clients. They are happy that we keep this “For the sports people we are involved with it’s relationship because of what Felipe has been through.” compulsory to race, to drive or to play with a watch,” he The familial nature of the partnership Mille says. “They are my test drivers, so to speak. I was against developed with Massa has informed all the personal all the marketing concepts that say you use the watch for sponsorships he has embarked on since. the pictures. I am not afraid to go to the battlefield.” “We feel the same about Rafael Nadal,” he says. And the combatant Mille chose for his F1 battle in “We’re with him through his ups and downs. Otherwise, 2004 was Brazilian Felipe Massa, then racing for Sauber. we shouldn’t be sponsoring sports, particularly extreme “I put the first tourbillon watch on the wrist of Felipe sports. It’s the same with Lotus [a partner since last year] and everybody told me I was mad – they felt the watch and Romain Grosjean. Last year was a fantastic season for would not last more than one or two laps because F1 is a the team and this year it’s a bit more complex. But that’s killer for mechanical watches,” explains Mille. “Between life and that’s sport. People say it’s not the same because the G-forces, the vibration, the shocks inside the cockpit, Eric Boullier left and James Allison, but it’s not about one you have everything to kill a watch. I remember this person. There is a fantastic team at Lotus. The results are tourbillon lasted two complete seasons without any need not the results of one or two people, but of a team.” for maintenance because the watch was built for that.” These relationships have also informed the products The watch, the RM006, was not only constructed Mille makes, with motor sport playing a key role in the with the intense forces of F1 in mind but also taking into development of technical elements of the watches. account the sport’s obsessions with saving weight. “There is all the time [a crossover] because you’re “You cannot imagine how much, at this level, talking about carbon, titanium, aluminium, lithium; in everything is important, such as the weight, the comfort terms of materials, it’s the same approach. Traditionally and the shock resistance. It’s not a toy. in the watch business, the cases are made separately from “The tourbillon device on the watch is a fragile part, the movement. So you can have the wrong movement made of 77 components with a total weight of 0.34 grams. in the case but then you manage to feed them together. I used a lot of new materials. In the watch business the This isn’t possible in F1. You cannot develop an engine tradition is to use brass or gold baseplates, not very stiff without integrating the chassis, etc. So when my watches materials. I was the first person – and I’m still the only one are made, the case is studied at the same time as the – to use titanium or carbon fibre because it’s very stable, movement – or engine – and they fit exactly in the case, stiff and a long-lasting material. The RM006 had a carbon with tolerances that are sometimes that of a micron.” nano-fibre baseplate. So everything that has to be rigid And so Mille once again returns to the compatibility is very rigid, everything that has to be flexible is flexible. of his brand philosophy with that of racing manufacturers It’s like a car. The chassis is rigid and the suspension is – intensely technical, specialist and rare. efficient. For example, the watch can absorb 800G.” “I don’t want to go into volume. I have a public price Massa’s relationship with Mille and the company that is around €150,000 on average. This year there will continues to this day. “With Felipe it’s a pure love be a production of over 3,000 units. The dream is to do in story because he’s a fantastic guy,” says Mille. “He’s terms of volume what, for example, Ferrari is doing. intelligent, sensible, sensitive and passionate about the “It does becomes expensive, but hopefully I have technical side of things. He loves watches, too.” many clients for that and the demand is higher than The partnership has been through tough times, what I can produce. That’s good though,” he laughs. “My PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHARD MILLE; DPPI; LAT PHOTOGRAPHY: however. In 2009, while driving for Ferrari during the father was always saying better create envy than pity.”

72 73 AUTO / REWIND

Freeze frame PRIDE OF SIR JACK

The death of Sir Jack Brabham last month not only robbed motor sport of a great champion, but also the only man to race to a title in a car built by his own team

When double champion Jack Brabham arrived in Monaco for the 1966 season-opener, he was 40 years old, had last won in 1960 and had spent the previous year contemplating retirement to run the team he had launched four years earlier. To onlookers ‘Black Jack’ must have seemed in the twilight of his career. And when the Aussie qualified 11th and exited the race after 17 laps with a gearbox problem, the suspicion that he was headed for another season on the fringes seemed confirmed. In fact, this was a new dawn. When the 1966 regulations doubled engine capacity to 3.0 litres, Brabham, ever the engineer, bucked the trend for V12 powerplants. He approached Australian manufacturer Repco with a bold plan – take an Oldsmobile engine abandoned by GM in 1963, modify it and slot the V8 into the back of his new BT19 car. The 154kg engine put out 300bhp compared with the 330-360bhp of its rivals but significantly it was lighter, less thirsty and more reliable. It powered Brabham to fourth at the next round in Belgium. At Reims (left) the champagne flowed as the BT19’s reliability allowed him to cruise past Lorenzo Bandini’s stricken Ferrari to take victory. It kick-started an astonishing run as the BT19, nicknamed ‘Old Nail’ by its driver, won at Silverstone, Zandvoort and the Nürburgring. Brabham could even afford some levity, and at Zandvoort he played up to his veteran status by sporting a long beard and a cane on the grid. Brabham went to Monza with a commanding title lead and despite a non-finish the retirement of his main rivals, John Surtees and Jackie Stewart, handed the championship to the old man and the Old Nail – the first and only time a driver had raced a car built by his own team to title glory. Brabham reckoned the ’66 season his greatest achievement, not just because of his own efforts but because it truly represented his homeland. “The team had an Australian designer in Ron Tauranac, Australian mechanics and an Australian-built engine,” he said. “To win with that package and group of people was a huge thrill. And to do it all in a car bearing my own PHOTOGRAPHY: LAT PHOTOGRAPHY: name is a record that will never be broken.” PHOTOGRAPHY: CORBIS PHOTOGRAPHY:

74 75 AUTO/FOCUS

CURRENT USE PEV CAR SALES & REGISTRATIONS GLOBAL EV RISE Market share of each country’s total new car sales Decreasing HEV/PHEV prices EV IN NUMBERS USA Japan China Netherlands France Norway HEV PHEV (2008-2013) (2009-2013) (2011-2013) (2009-2013) (2010-2013) (2003-2013) 100% Global stock 0.08% 380,000 0.62% 0.85% 0.65% 20,486 26 28,673 28,560 10 125,000 38,592 Sales & registrations 0% HEVs and PHEVs are predicted 74,124 to see a 10% and 26% decline EV GLOSSARY 5.37% 5.6% respectively in pack costs by 2020.

Increasing vehicle availability PHEV and BEV models are HEV PHEV increasing in number and will Hybrid electric Plug-in Hybrid 172,000 be less limited by the end vehicles electric vehicles of 2014 or mid-2015 in most regions. Vehicles will be ELECTRIC available from almost every TOP FIVE EV MARKET SHARE (2013) mainstream manufacturer. PEV BEV Plug-in electric Battery electric BEV 6.1% PEV PHEV Gasoline & diesel prices vehicles vehicles 5.75% VEHICLES 5.55% Gasoline Diesel 10% 10% The take-up of electric vehicles (EVs) – including 4.72% INCREASE hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electric FUTURE LEADERS vehicles – is on rise 7.2 8.3 0% 0% Sales of electric vehicles have been slower than AM expected so far, but all that is about to change with TH ER Global gasoline and diesel R IC forecasts on the rise. The growth in sales is being O A prices are predicted to N AC driven not only by the appeal of new types of electric A P IFIC increase at 7.2% and 8.3% SI cars but also by factors such as lower operating costs, A 0.94% 0.91% compound annual growth 0.83% 0.79% 0.73% 0.83% 0.69% rates (CAGRs) between government incentives and a rebounding economy. 0.41% 0.4% This increase is set to gather pace over the next 0.34% 0.31% 2013 and 2020. few years, with global EV sales at just over two million in 2013 rising up to predicted sales of almost Government influence seven million in 2020, according a report by clean technology consultancy Navigant Research. NorwayNetherlandsFranceEstoniaIceland NorwayNetherlandsIcelandJapan France NetherlandsSwedenJapan NorwayUSA However, this growth is being led by intense

activity in a few markets and others are still playing HEV PEV ICE VEHICLES catch-up. While new car sales of EVs account for a Largest markets Largest market GLOBAL EV SALES SPECIAL significant market share in countries such as Norway (2020) (2020) OFFER and the Netherlands (over five per cent) they are BEV PHEV HEV FUEL ECONOMY still under one per cent of major markets such as Japanese sales PHEV & BEV sales Vehicles the US and UK. All that may change as the appeal of combined 7 million EVs increases, with huge growth expected in North 1.1 million 6 million America and South East Asia. US sales 1.6 million 5 million Governments play a key role 1 million 4 million in the PHEV/BEV markets by 3 million offering purchase incentives 2 million and regulating the fuel economy and emissions of internal 1 million combustion engine vehicles. 0 SOURCE: ABB/NAVIGANT RESEARCH ABB/NAVIGANT SOURCE: PROJECTED SALES 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

76 77 AUTO/ FINAL LAP

FIA Academy graduate from my instructors back in the Academy and incorporate that into my days as a track instructor, so that’s been a lot of fun. We had one workshop specific to that in the YOUNG GUN Academy and I was able to go over my notes and use what I learned to help other people Since 20-year-old Colombian Gabby Chaves graduated from the improve their driving abilities.

FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy in 2012 his career has Q What are you hoping to go on and accelerated. He recently took his third Indy Lights win of the year at achieve next? A Well, at the moment the short-term goal is Indianapolis, and has led a road safety campaign at home in Florida to reach IndyCar by becoming Indy Lights champion this year [with the new Belardi Q Since your time in the Academy, how everyone now that it’s illegal to text and drive team] and use the scholarship to get a full- have things progressed for you? in the state of Florida. time ride in IndyCar next year. That would be A It’s been going great; I had a great year in great. But I’m young and there are still many 2013 in my rookie season in the Indy Lights Q What other aspects of the Academy have things that could happen with my career. series, finishing second in the championship. helped with your career? On the side, I’ve been able to keep A Being taught different driving techniques Q Do you have any advice for drivers who working on road safety with the Don’t by [Academy performance manager] might be considering applying for the Text and Drive campaign. That has been Alex Wurz and the other instructors was next Academy? progressing well, getting a lot more followers really helpful. Obviously at the beginning A Oh, go for it! It was one of the best things and a lot more attention. It is now statewide it’s not natural to change techniques and that could have happened to my career. In across Florida whereas before it was just incorporate it into your racing right away, so 2012, when I was in the Academy, I was trying local. It has been expanding slowly but surely. it has been a long process and sometimes to get a ride in Europe and it didn’t happen, a little bit hard. But I’m at the stage now so I had to use the resources I could to find Q Do you think that this campaign has where I’m applying everything I learned and a last-minute deal in America. It ended up had an impact? it doesn’t feel forced. It has definitely been being fine, I finished second in the Indy A We started a petition from our campaign working out for me – I think we are the fastest Lights championship with a couple of wins, and because of this the state voted on a guys on track every time. but I felt I had taken a step backwards in my law against texting and driving, all from In addition, I’ve been able to do a little career. Being with the Academy helped me something we have initiated. I don’t know bit of coaching for other drivers and have get through that period and showed me that a specific number that we’ve reached but worked on driving academies for regular I could get back on the road, take the next we are making an impact – it’s reaching people. I was able to use what I learned step and keep following my goals.

Victory at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway helped keep Gabby Chaves on track in his bid to win the 2014 Indy Lights series.

78 WE ALSO DESIGN THE FIELD OF PLAY

HOK are pleased to welcome the designers behind the Silverstone Circuit and Silverstone Wing to our Sport & Entertainment team

For further information contact [email protected] +44 (0) 7766 026467 www.hok.com